Andrew Talal, M.D., M.P.H., is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Associate Attending Physician. He is a physician-scientist in the Center for the Study of Hepatitis C whose research interests are translational research on the pathogenesis of hepatitis C virus infection. In particular, his research focuses on the identification of determinants of histological progression of liver disease and biomarkers of treatment outcome with pegylated interferon and ribavirin. His clinical interest is the treatment of viral hepatitis among underserved populations including HCV/HIV co-infected patients. To that end, he founded and continues to direct the Liver Clinic of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. He also created and continues to direct the Centers database as well as its serum and tissue repository that contains samples on >1500 patients with viral hepatitis.
Dr. Talal received his medical degree at the University of Texas, San Antonio, and completed his residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinic. He completed a research and clinical fellowship and a Masters in Public Health in Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. From 1996-2000, he was a Rockefeller University Clinical Scholar in the laboratory of Dr. David Ho, the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center. While at Rockefeller, Dr. Talal investigated HIV pathogenesis in the gut-associated lymphoid tissue and participated in several early studies using antiretroviral agents in combination. Since 2000, he has been the director of the Laboratory for Translational Research of the Center for the Study of Hepatitis C.
As Dr. Talals research interests are the development of biomarkers of histological progression of liver disease, he has focused on the role of chemokines in the development of chronic hepatic inflammation in chronic hepatitis C virus infection. In his quest to find biomarkers of treatment outcome, Dr. Talal recently published the first in depth analysis of pegylated interferon pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics as well as ribavirin pharmacokinetics in chronic HCV infection. He has also recently published a manuscript describing a chemokine, interferon-gamma inducible protein 10, as a potential biomarker of treatment outcome in HCV/HIV co-infected patients. This research was funded by the New York Academy of Medicine and a Mentored Clinical Scientist Development Award from the NIDDK. Currently, Dr. Talal is furthering this investigation by pursuing prospective studies to evaluate the utility of several biomarkers of treatment response to pegylated interferon and ribavirin.
As a board-certified gastroenterologist and hepatologist and building upon his background in HIV acquired during his tenure in the Ho laboratory, he founded the Viral Hepatitis Clinic in 2000 that specializes in the care of HCV/HIV co-infected patients. Based upon his research and clinical accomplishments, he has been recognized nationally as an authority on viral hepatitis in HIV-infected individuals. Based upon these accomplishments, he was the recipient of a Clinton Global Initiatives award from the W.J. Clinton Foundation in 2006. This award has fostered the development of treatment algorithms for hepatitis viruses B and C and their dissemination among underserved populations locally, nationally, and globally.
