Joel V. Chua, MD

Infectious Disease Fellowship, University of Maryland Medical Center, 2008-2010

Internal Medicine Residency, University of Connecticut Health Center, 2005-2008

Internal Medicine Residency, University of the Philippines - Philippine General Hospital, 2002-2004

Doctor of Medicine (M.D.), cum laude, University of the Philippines College of Medicine, 1996-2001

Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Major in Biology, magna cum laude, University of the Philippines Manila, 1992-1996 

My clinical and teaching focus in surgical infectious disease that includes care of patients with osteomyelitis, endovascular infections, ventriculitis, intraabdominal infections, empyema, and postsurgical infection. I give lectures to infectious disease fellows on intraabdominal infections, and annually invited as a faculty speaker for vascular surgeons and podiatrist on vascular infections and osteomyelitis.

My research interest and efforts involve developing novel antiviral for the treatment of neglected and emerging viruses of global importance with special interest in dengue virus infection, hepatitis B, and more recently with SARS-CoV-2. Under the mentorship of Dr. Kirsten Lyke, I am currently working on developing dengue human challenge model for the evaluation of vaccines and therapeutics as well as in search of immune correlates of protection against this virus. In addition, I am developing humanized mice model as a platform for evaluating dengue antivirals. As part of my contribution in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, I am actively involved in clinical trials evaluating therapeutics with expertise in the study of virus neutralizing anti-spike monoclonal antibody cocktail and antivirals as SARS-CoV-2 therapeutics.

Dengue antiviral development and immunopathogenesis, HIV vaccine clinical trials; Viral hepatitis antiviral development, and SARS-CoV-2 antiviral development.

Dengue antiviral development and immunopathogenesis

1. Coronel-Ruiz C, Gutiérrez-Barbosa H, Medina-Moreno S, Velindia-Romero ML, Chua JV, Castellaños JE, Zapata JC. Humanized mice in Dengue research: a comparison with other mouse models. Vaccines. 2020 Jan 22. 8(1). Pii: E39. Doi: 10.3390/vaccines8010039. PubMed PMID: 31979145.
2. Gutierrez-Barbosa H, Medina-Moreno S, Zapata JC, Chua JV. Dengue infections in Colombia: epidemiological trends of a hyperendemic country. Trop Med Infect Dis. 2020 Oct 3; 5(4): E156. doi:10.3390/tropicalmed5040156. ePub October 3, 2020. PubMed PMID: 33022908.
3. Gutierrez-Barbosa H, Medina-Moreno S, Davis H, Bryant J, Chua JV, Zapata JC. Humanized Mice for the Study of Dengue Disease Pathogenesis: Biological Assays. In: Borges R (eds) Dengue Virus. Methods in Mol Biol. 2022; 2409: 271-289. Humana, New York. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1879-0_19. PubMed PMID: 34709649.
4. Obi JO, Gutiérrez-Barbosa H, Chua JV, Deredge DJ. Current Trends and Limitations in Dengue Antiviral Research. Trop Med Infect Dis. 2021 Sep 30; 6(4):180 doi:20.3390/ tropicalmed6040180. PMID: 34698303.

HIV vaccine development

1. Chua JV, Davis C, Husson JS, Nelson A, Prado I, Flinko R, Lam LWJ, Mutumbi L, Mayer BT, Dong D, Fulp W, Mahoney C, Gerber M, Gottardo R, Gilliam BL, Greene K, Gao H, Yates N, Ferrari G, Tomaras G, Montefiori D, Schwartz JA, Fouts T, DeVico AL, Lewis GK, Gallo RC, Sajadi MM. Safety and immunogenicity of an HIV-1 gp120-CD4 chimeric subunit vaccine in a phase 1a randomized controlled trial. 2021 Jun 4. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.05.090. PubMed PMID: 34099328.
2. Stafford KA, Mayer B, Fulp W, Chua JV, Davis C, Gilliam B, Dong D, Sajadi MS. Variability of CD4+ cell counts in HIV-1 uninfected volunteers who are eligible for a Phase I HIV vaccine study. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2020 May 1; 84(1):37-44. Doi:10.1097/QAI. PubMed PMID: 31985697.

Viral hepatitis immunology and therapeutics

1. Chua JV, Ntem-Mensah A, Abutaleb A, Husson J, Mutumbi L, Lam KW, Ghosh A, Romani S, Poonia B, Lee S, Pascual ML, Frumkin LR, Kottilil S. Short-duration treatment with the novel non-nucleoside inhibitor CDI-31244 plus sofosbuvir/velpatasvir for chronic hepatitis C: an open-label study. J Med Virol. 2021. 93(6):3752-3760. doi: 10.1002/jmv.26652. Epub 2020 Nov 5. PubMed PMID: 33150966.
2. Jakharia N, Kottilil S, Chua JV. Quantification of Hepatitis B surface antigen: Is there a role in HIV-HBV coinfection? AIDS Review. 2019 Oct 3; 21(4):175-183. doi:10.24875/ AIDSRev.19000077. PubMed PMID: 31588136.
3. Khaman A, Chua JV, Kottilil S. Immunopathology of chronic hepatitis B infection: Role of innate and adaptive immune response in disease progression. Int J Mol Sci. 2021 May 23; 22(11):5497. doi: 10.3390/igms22115497. PubMed PMID: 34071064.

SARS-CoV-2 clinical trials

1. Narayanan S, Chua JV, Heil E. COVID-19: Pitfalls in offering research participation as therapy in clinical settings. J Gen Intern Med. 2020 Sep 3;1-2. doi:10.1007/s11606.020. 06158.6. PubMed PMID: 32885370.
2. Emadi A, Chua JV, Talwani R, Bentzen SM, Baddley J. Safety and efficacy of imatinib for hospitalized adults with COVID-19: a structured summary of a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials. 2020 Oct 28; 21(1):897. doi: 10.1186/s13063-020-04819-9. PubMed PMID: 33115543.
3. Narayanan S, Kottilil S, Chua JV. Review of “Evidence for increased breakthrough rates of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern in BNT162b2 mRNA vaccinated individuals.” Rapid Reviews COVID-19. ePub on April 15, 2021.
4. Narayanan S, Chua JV, Baddley JW. COVID-19 associated Mucormycosis (CAM): risk factors and mechanisms of disease. Clin Infect Dis. Accepted August 18, 2021.