James D. Chappell
Dr. Chappell serves as the Laboratory Director of the VISPR Program. His professional background bridges laboratory medicine and biomedical research. Dr. Chappell spent his professional life as a Vanderbilt University faculty member with research interests encompassing laboratory detection, pathogen spectrum, epidemiology, vaccinology, treatment, and pathogenesis of acute respiratory and enteric viral infections. The scientific scope of his work includes discovery-driven experimental systems of viral replication and disease; phenotypic and genetic characterization of novel coronaviruses; development of vaccines and therapeutics to combat emerging viral diseases; pathobiology of acute and long-term outcomes of respiratory viral infections; and clinical studies of infectious disease causation, treatment, and prevention. Dr. Natasha Halasa, VISPR Program Director, and Dr. Chappell have worked collaboratively for many years to define the burden, etiology, clinical features, and vaccine-mediated prevention of acute respiratory and enteric illnesses of children and other special populations, including immunocompromised individuals, in the U.S. and abroad.