Dr. Watkins has an extensive background in vaccine research using the Indian rhesus macaque to test vaccine concepts. He has conducted more than 10 vaccine trials in Indian rhesus macaques using a variety of regimens and challenge models. His main interests lie in finding T cell and antibody-based vaccines for several pathogens. He has worked with Brazilian collaborators both at FIOCRUZ and at the University of São Paulo for the last several years and has co-authored multiple publications with them. More recently his laboratory has developed a facility in culturing and measuring viral concentrations and immune responses against flaviviruses as a direct result of the use of recombinant YF17D as a vaccine vector. Dr. Watkins’ extensive experience in testing vaccine approaches in NHP gives him the necessary background to develop vaccine for HTLV-1.