Nair Lab

Dr. Madhavan Nair’s research mainly involves the role of different drugs of abuse such as alcohol, morphine, cocaine, and methamphetamine on neuro-AIDS, and therapeutic approaches to control neuro-AIDS by specific drug targeting to the brain using nanotechnology.

Nair and his colleagues discovered the suppressor factor in cancer serum (1978). And first reported that intravenous drug users manifest low natural killer cell activity (1986), and morphine induces apoptosis of normal lymphocytes (1997). In 1988, Nair reported for the first time (in PNAS) that HIV recombinant purified gene products possess significant biological activities. His original discovery that cocaine increases the sensitivity to HIV infection by increasing the HIV co-receptors and methamphetamine exacerbates the HIV replication in dendritic cells had a profound effect on the role of these drugs on HIV disease progression.

Nair is the first FIU researcher to earn a prestigious MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health, recognizing outstanding competence and productivity in research (2008-2018). Nair is also the recipient of the University of Michigan Distinguished Research Scientist Award (1990), the Exceptional Research Scholar Award from State University of New York (2005), the Excellence in Faculty Scholarship Award from FIU (2008), and the FIU Presidential Leadership Operational Excellence Award (2009).

Madhavan Nair, Ph.D., is a distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Immunology and NanoMedicine. He also serves as director of the Institute of NeuroImmune Pharmacology, associate dean of Bio-Medical Research, and associate vice president for NanoMedicine. His lab is located in Academic Health Center 1, rooms 306, 307, 308, 311, and 312.