Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, I have been involved in the stuyding the role of macophages in the pathogenesis of a wide variety of diseases including neurodegenerative diseases and cancer.  The primary model systems for these studies revolved around the study of HIV infected macrophages and their influence on the brain as well as the immune system.  Through the study of HIV disease, I have gained important insight into the pathogenesis of other non-HIV diseases that seem to operate in the same manner as those associated with HIV infection.  

A critical component of the studies performed over the past 30 years was the creation of the AIDS and Cancer Specimen Resource (ACSR), an NCI sponsored program that I have been the PI for since 1994.  Access to well preserved tissue from patients with a wide variety of HIV related conditions has allowed the discovery of fundamental mechanisms of disease that, without access, would never have been made.  Our recent focus has been on the study of macrophage activation in the pathogenesis of all forms of chronic disease. 

- Mike McGrath