Thomas R. Klei
Dr. Klei has a joint appointment in the Department of Pathobiological Sciences the School of Veterinary Medicine and the Department of Veterinary Science in the LSU Agricultural Center. He also serves as Interim Vice Chancellor of Research and Economic Development. Dr. Klei lectures courses on parasitology and immunology in the veterinary medical curriculum and in the graduate program in veterinary medical sciences. He has served as major and minor professor for both MS and Ph.D. candidates. He is currently the PI on a NIH IBRE grant, and T35 training grant for veterinary students. He is co-director of a NIH T32 grant for training in experimental pathology and medicine and a NIH COBRE grant in Experimental Infectious Disease. He is a past president of the American Association of Veterinary Parasitologists and currently serves on the editorial boards of Parasite Immunity and the Compendium for Continuing Education for the Practicing Veterinarian. He is a consultant to the pharmaceutical industry on the development of veterinary anthelmintics, and vaccines and he has served on grant peer review panels for the United States Department of Agriculture, National Institutes of Health, and the World Health Organization.
His research activities are related to the host immune response to parasitic nematode infection as it develops into either protection from infection or pathology. Specific involvements include the study of immunopathogenic and regulatory mechanisms involved in human filariasis. These studies are primarily of laboratory animal models for human lymphatic filariasis. He and his laboratory are currently active as a Co-PI in a NIH funded program to develop recombinant protein vaccines against filarial nematodes of man. Dr. Klei also maintains an interest on the basic and applied aspects of equine parasite control which include characterization of the immune response to nematode infections, studies on basic biologic and chemotherapeutic control measures useful against internal parasites of horses, and the epidemiology of equine nematode infections.
Contact information: tklei1@lsu.edu