Immune Disease Institute

The Goldfeld laboratory focuses on the molecular mechanisms involved in cell and inducer specific tumor necrosis factor gene expression and on the study of host factors involved in effective immunity or immune pathology resulting from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) and HIV-1 infection.  Her laboratory uses biochemical, genetic, and evolutionary approaches to understand the checkpoints of TNF gene regulation including the role of chromatin organization, distal regulatory elements and epigenetic remodeling of the TNF locus.  These studies are designed to shed light on the basic question of how eukaryotic genes are activated in a cell type- and inducer-specific manner in response to extracellular signals or infection while identifying specific molecular targets that can be used to manipulate TNF gene expression in infectious and autoimmune diseases where it plays a central role.

The other focus of the lab is to understand TB and HIV-1 pathogenesis by nesting molecular and immunological studies within networks of care delivery for TB and AIDS.  For example, the lab is studying the molecular mechanisms involved in distinct TB/AIDS clinical outcomes in well characterized TB and HIV infected and co-infected patients in Asia and Africa.  The laboratory directly studies the transcriptional pathways leading to HIV replication and disease progression through the characterization of HIV-1 gene expression by TB and the role of host transcription factors and signal transduction pathways in laboratory co-infection models using RNA interference and manipulation of clinical TB and HIV strains.  It is the goal of this body of work to provide insights leading to vaccines and immune therapies to eradicate TB and AIDS.

Dr. Goldfeld attended Brown University and the University of California, Berkeley where she earned a bachelor's degree in zoology. After receiving her M.D. from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, she completed a residency in internal medicine and a clinical fellowship in infectious disease at the Massachusetts General Hospital followed by post-doctoral research training at Harvard University and the Dana-Farber Cancer InstituteDr. Goldfeld has been a devoted advocate for health and human rights particularly as related to refugees working in many post-conflict settings around the world. In 1994 she co-founded the Cambodian Health Committee with Sok Thim and has pioneered community-based TB treatment and more recently AIDS treatment strategies in southeastern Cambodia that integrate basic scientific discovery with operational models. Dr. Goldfeld is a Senior Investigator at the IDI an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and member of the Infectious Disease Division at Brigham & Women's Hospital.