Nicolas Sluis-Cremer, Ph.D.

  • Professor
  • Associate Chief of Research
  • Division of Infectious Diseases

Education & Training

  • B.Sc., Biochemistry, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa-1993
  • B.Sc., Honors, Biochemistry, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa-1994
  • Ph.D., Biophysics, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa- 1997
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, HIV, Virology, McGill University AIDS Center, Lady Institute for Medical Research, Montreal, Canada- 2001

Research Interest Summary

HIV pathogenesis

Research Categories

Research Interests

Dr. Sluis-Cremer's laboratory uses a multi-disciplinary approach that includes biophysics, biochemistry, virology, and analysis of clinical samples to gain insight into the mechanisms of action of antiretroviral drugs; antiviral and antimicrobial drug resistance; and understanding how HIV-1 persists in infected individuals despite potent antiretroviral therapy. His lab uses state-of-the-art biophysical methods, including transient kinetic and single-molecule fluorescence approaches, to define how small molecules affect retroviral enzyme function, the intramolecular protein conformational dynamics, and the intermolecular enzyme-substrate interactions. Dr. Sluis-Cremer's HIV-1 resistance research focuses on identifying drug resistance mutations that are selected in infected-individuals failing therapy, defining the mechanisms by which these mutations decrease drug susceptibility, and predicting how acquired or transmitted drug resistance mutations impact treatment options. His lab also studies antibiotic resistance and is exploring novel therapeutic approaches to reverse fosfomycin resistance. In regard to HIV-1 persistence, the lab focuses on characterizing the latent pool of HIV-1 infection that resides in resting CD4+ T cells, in particular the naive and central memory subsets, using novel primary cell models of HIV-1 latency and by studying purified subsets of the resting CD4+ T cell population from HIV-infected individuals on suppressive antiretroviral therapy.

Representative Publications

Sluis-Cremer N. Retroviral reverse transcriptase: Structure, function and inhibition. Enzymes. 2021;50:179-194.

Gerberick A, DeLucia DC, Piazza P, Alaoui-El-Azher M, Rinaldo CR, Sluis-Cremer N, Rappocciolo G.  B Lymphocytes, but Not Dendritic Cells, Efficiently HIV-1 Trans Infect Naive CD4+ T Cells: Implications for the Viral Reservoir. mBio. 2021 Mar 9;12(2):e02998-20.

Barnard JP, Huber KD, Sluis-Cremer N.  Nonnucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor Hypersusceptibility and Resistance by Mutation of Residue 181 in HIV-1 Reverse Transcriptase. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2019 Jul 25;63(8):e00676-19.

Zerbato JM, McMahon DK, Sobolewski MD, Mellors JW, Sluis-Cremer N. Naive CD4+ T Cells Harbor a Large Inducible Reservoir of Latent, Replication-competent Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1. Clin Infect Dis. 2019 Nov 13;69(11):1919-1925.

Tomich AD, Klontz EH, Deredge D, Barnard JP, McElheny CL, Eshbach ML, Weisz OA, Wintrode P, Doi Y, Sundberg EJ, Sluis-Cremer N. Small-Molecule Inhibitor of FosA Expands Fosfomycin Activity to Multidrug-Resistant Gram-Negative Pathogens. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2019 Feb 26;63(3):e01524-18.

Vargas B, Giacobbi NS, Sanyal A, Venkatachari NJ, Han F, Gupta P, Sluis-Cremer N. Inhibitors of Signaling Pathways That Block Reversal of HIV-1 Latency. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2019 Jan 29;63(2):e01744-18.

Sluis-Cremer N. Future of nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018 Jan 23;115(4):637-638.

Sanyal A, Mailliard RB, Rinaldo CR, Ratner D, Ding M, Chen Y, Zerbato JM, Giacobbi NS, Venkatachari NJ, Patterson BK, Chargin A, Sluis-Cremer N, Gupta P.  Novel assay reveals a large, inducible, replication-competent HIV-1 reservoir in resting CD4+ T cells. Nat Med. 2017 Jul;23(7):885-889.

Giacobbi NS, Sluis-Cremer N.  In Vitro Cross-Resistance Profiles of Rilpivirine, Dapivirine, and MIV-150, Nonnucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor Microbicides in Clinical Development for the Prevention of HIV-1 Infection. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2017 Jun 27;61(7):e00277-17.

Zerbato JM, Tachedjian G, Sluis-Cremer N.  Nonnucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors Reduce HIV-1 Production from Latently Infected Resting CD4+ T Cells following Latency Reversal. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2017 Feb 23;61(3):e01736-16. 

Full List of Publications