James Hildreth, M.D. Ph.D.
Director, Center for AIDS Health Disparities Research
Professor, Department of Internal Medicine

Fax (615) 327-6929
Phone(615) 327-5754
George Hubbard Hospital, 5th floor
1005 Dr. D.B. Todd Boulevard
Nashville, TN  37208

jhildreth@mmc.edu

CV or Bio (PDF)

Dr. Hildreth has been affiliated with several prestigious universities, beginning at Harvard University, where he graduated magna cum laude in chemistry in 1979. He then went to Oxford University in England as a Rhodes Scholar and got his doctorate in immunology in 1982. Five years later, he earned his medical degree at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. Dr. Hildreth joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins full time after graduation.

In 2001, while Dr. Hildreth was Chief of the Division of Research for NIH’s National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, he and his research team discovered that cholesterol is active in HIV's ability to penetrate cells and that removing the fatty material from a cell's membrane can block infection. This led to his focus on how HIV enters cells and causes infection. Dr. Hildreth accepted the Directorship of Meharry’s Center for AIDS Health Disparities Research in 2005. His primary work focuses on developing topical microbicides (chemical condoms) to block transmission of HIV.

Nguyen DH, Hildreth JE. Evidence for budding of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 selectively from glycolipid-enriched membrane lipid rafts. J Virol. 2000 Apr;74(7):3264-72.

Iyengar S, Schwartz DH, Clements JE, Hildreth JE. CD4-independent, CCR5-dependent simian immunodeficiency virus infection and chemotaxis of human cells. J Virol. 2000 Aug;74(15):6720-4.

Liao Z, Cimakasky LM, Hampton R, Nguyen DH, Hildreth JE. Lipid rafts and HIV pathogenesis: host membrane cholesterol is required for infection by HIV type 1. AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses. 2001 Jul 20;17(11):1009-19.

Liao Z, Graham DR, Hildreth JE. Lipid rafts and HIV pathogenesis: virion-associated cholesterol is required for fusion and infection of susceptible cells. AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses. 2003 Aug;19(8):675-87.

Gould SJ, Booth AM, Hildreth JE. The Trojan exosome hypothesis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2003 Sep 16;100(19):10592-7. Epub 2003 Aug 28.