Joeseph Zunt, M.D., M.P.H.

Phone: (206)731-3251
Fax: (206) 731-8787
E-mail: jzunt@u.washington.edu

LINK TO JOSEPH ZUNT'S COMMUNITY OF SCIENCE WEB PAGE

CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS

Over the past eight years, Dr. Zunt has built a large collaborative research infrastructure involving the University of Washington and several medical centers, NGOs and Universities in Peru, and is now developing an international multidisciplinary training program linking the University of Washington Schools of Medicine, Public Health, Social Work, and Evans School of Public Policy with corresponding institutions in Peru. He has mentored University of Washington medical and social work students, Internal Medicine and Neurology residents as well as Peruvian neurologists.

His NIH-funded research interests encompass effects of HIV, HTLV-I, and HTLV-II infection upon the nervous system, retroviral co-infection and viral meningoencephalitis in Peru. His research has focused mainly on marginalized populations, such as commercial sex workers, men who have sex with men, and people with neurologic disabilities. In addition to his emphasis on clinical research in Peru, he collaborates with basic scientists at the Universities of Hawaii, Tennessee, Texas (Galveston) and the CDC, who perform complementary studies in virologic and immunologic aspects of these infections.

In Seattle, he has ongoing collaborative projects exploring the effects of viral infection upon the nervous system, and the efficacy and complications of peripheral blood stem cell transplantation for multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune neurologic diseases. He is currently concluding studies of HCV and HTLV-II and is a co-investigator on a grant examining HHV-6 in bone marrow transplant recipients. He is also implementing a collaborative study of clinical and immunologic manifestations of West Nile Virus infection of the CNS.

PUBLICATIONS

Zunt JR. Central Nervous System Infection During Immunosuppression. Neurol Clinic Neurol Clinic 2002;20(1):1-22.

Levin MC, Lee SM, Kalume F, Morcos Y, Dohan FC, Hasty KA, Callaway JC, Zunt JR, Desiderio DM, Stuart JM. Autoimmunity due to Molecular Mimicry as a Cause of Neurologic Disease. Nature Medicine 2002;8(5):509-13.

Zunt JR, Dezzutti CS, Montano SM, Thomas K, Alarcon JO, Quijano E, Courtois B, Sanchez J, Campos P, Gotuzzo E, Guenthner P, Lal RB, Holmes KK. Cervical shedding of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type-I is associated with cervicitis. J Infect Disease 2002;186:1669-72.

Marra CM, Lockhart D, Zunt JR, Perrin M. Coombs RW, Collier AC. Changes in Cerebrospinal Fluid and Plasma HIV-1 RNA and in Neuropsychological Test Performance After Starting Potent Antiretroviral Therapy that Includes a Protease Inhibitor. Neurology 2003;60:1388-90.

Nash RA, Bowen JD, McSweeney PA, Pavletic ZS, Maravilla KR, Park MS, Sullivan KM, Al-Omaishi J, Corboy JR, Derrington D, DiPersio J, Georges G, Holberg LA, LeMaistre CF, Openshaw H, Ryan K, Sunderhaus J, Storb R, Storek J, Zunt J, Kraft GH. High-dose immunosuppressive therapy and autologous stem cell transplantation for severe multiple sclerosis. Blood 2003;102:2364-72.

Han MH, Zunt JR. Bioterrorism and the nervous system. Curr Neurol and Neurosci Rep, 2003;3:476-482.

Montano S, Zunt JR, Rodriguez L, Quispe I, Rodriguez C, Altamirano J, Bautista CT, Alarcon JOV, Longstreth WT, Jr., Holmes KK. HTLV-I infection and early neurologic development: a pilot study in 28 children. Clin Infect Disease 2004; 39(7):1079-82.

Zunt JR, Montano, S, Alarcon JOV, Longstreth WT, Jr., Price R, Holmes, KK. Quantitative assessment of spasticity in HTLV-I associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis. J Neurovirology (in press).

Walker MD, Zunt JR. Parasitic CNS Infections in the Immunocompromised Host. Clin Infect Disease (in press).

Walker MD, Zunt JR. Neuroparasitic Infections: Cestodes, Trematodes and Protozoans. Seminars in Neurology (in press)

Walker MD, Zunt JR. Neuroparasitic Infections: Nematodes. Seminars in Neurology (in press)