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
- Domain shuffling has been the main mechanism forming new hominoid killer cell Ig-like receptors.| | PubMed
- Predominance of group A KIR haplotypes in Japanese associated with diverse NK cell repertoires of KIR expression.| | PubMed
- Distinctive KIR and HLA diversity in a panel of north Indian Hindus.| | PubMed
- Conservation and variation in human and common chimpanzee CD94 and NKG2 genes.| | PubMed
- Comparison of chimpanzee and human leukocyte Ig-like receptor genes reveals framework and rapidly evolving genes.| | PubMed
- Molecular diversity of HLA-A*02 in Asian Indians: predominance of A*0211.| | PubMed
- Different NK cell surface phenotypes defined by the DX9 antibody are due to KIR3DL1 gene polymorphism.| | PubMed
- Identification of seventeen novel KIR variants: fourteen of them from two non-Caucasian donors.| | PubMed
- Short KIR haplotypes in pygmy chimpanzee (Bonobo) resemble the conserved framework of diverse human KIR haplotypes.| | PubMed
- Discovery of two novel variants of KIR2DS5 reveals this gene to be a common component of human KIR 'B' haplotypes.| | PubMed