Javeed Ali Shah, MD

Current projects are focused on the innate immune response to tuberculosis and leprosy. The goal of this research is to identify immune mechanisms that make certain populations more or less susceptible to severe disease phenotypes than others.  To this end, he has identified polymorphisms in a critical stress response gene, TOLLIP, that alters the cytokine response within macrophages that impact the innate immune response and TB susceptibility in human populations.  Our lab is dedicated to pursuing how these genes and others like them influence TB pathogenesis using a combination of human population-based methods and mouse knockout studies.  To complement these population-based studies, Javeed uses genetic editing of cell lines and primary cells as well as molecular biology techniques to pinpoint polymorphisms of interest.  The goal of these studies is to determine critical molecular pathways that may be novel targets for therapeutic intervention.