Biography
Education
Institution | Degree | Dept or School | End Date |
---|---|---|---|
Royal College of Pathologists | FRCPath | Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics | 2018 |
American Board of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ABHI) | D(ABHI) | Histocompatibility Testing | 2008 |
Stanford University | Post-Doctoral Research | Immunogenetics | 2002 |
All India Institute of Medical Sciences | Ph.D. | Histocompatibility & Immunogenetics | 1996 |
University of Madras | M.Phil. | Endocrinology | 1989 |
Bharathiyar University | M.Sc. | Zoology | 1988 |
University of Madras | B.Sc. | Zoology | 1984 |
Awards & Honors
Award | Conferred By | Date |
---|---|---|
Prof. NK Mehra Oration Award 2016 | Indian Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ISHI) | 2016 |
Certificate of Qualification, Histocompatibility Laboratory Director | New York State Department of Health | 2012 |
Histocompatibility Laboratory Director | Department of Public Health, State of California | 2009 |
Clinical Immunology Training Award | FIMSA & IUIS | 1996 |
Shakuntala Amir Chand prize for the best Ph.D. thesis in Biomedical Sciences in India | Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) | 1996 |
University First Rank in post-graduation (M.Sc.: Zoology, Biochemicstry, Molecular Biology) | Bharathiyar University, Coimbatore, India | 1988 |
Collaboration Interests
I am interested in:
- academic collaboration
- community and stakeholder organizations
- companies and entrepreneurs
- multicenter clinical research
- prospective donors
Research Narrative
Natural killer (NK) have been implicated in control and clearance of malignant and virally infected cells, regulation of adaptive immune responses, rejection of bone marrow transplants, autoimmunity and the maintenance of pregnancy. Human NK cells largely use a family of Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA)-specific Killer cell Immunoglobulin-like Receptors (KIR) to recognize and respond to the unhealthy target cells. KIR and HLA loci are both polygenic and substantially polymorphic, and they map to distinct human chromosomes (Chromosomes 19 and 6, respectively).
KIR and HLA gene families segregate independently, yielding many individuals who express KIR receptors for which they lack HLA class I ligands, and vice versa, thus creating human diversity in the number and type of KIR-HLA inherited gene pairs, which potentially could influence the health and disease status of a given individual. The overall goal of our research is to understand the diversity of KIR receptors, HLA ligands, and KIR-HLA gene combinations in populations and their relevance in human health and disease.
Publications
- Donor-Reactive Regulatory T Cell Frequency Increases During Acute Cellular Rejection of Lung Allografts.| | PubMed
- Defining KIR and HLA Class I Genotypes at Highest Resolution via High-Throughput Sequencing.| | PubMed
- KIR and HLA Genotypes Implicated in Reduced Killer Lymphocytes Immunity Are Associated with Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada Disease.| | PubMed
- Donor-Recipient Matching for KIR Genotypes Reduces Chronic GVHD and Missing Inhibitory KIR Ligands Protect against Relapse after Myeloablative, HLA Matched Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation.| | PubMed
- CRM1 Inhibition Promotes Cytotoxicity in Ewing Sarcoma Cells by Repressing EWS-FLI1-Dependent IGF-1 Signaling.| | PubMed
- HLA Markers DQ8 and DR53 Are Associated With Lymphocytic Hypophysitis and May Aid in Differential Diagnosis.| | PubMed
- Human NK cells licensed by killer Ig receptor genes have an altered cytokine program that modifies CD4+ T cell function.| | PubMed
- Characterization of human killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) among healthy Saudis.| | PubMed
- Gene-specific PCR typing of killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors.| | PubMed
- Allele-level haplotype frequencies and pairwise linkage disequilibrium for 14 KIR loci in 506 European-American individuals.| | PubMed