Dr. Sharvan Sehrawat
Associate Professor , Biological Sciences

Induction of an adaptive immune response and its maintenance in the memory phase forms the basis of lasting protective immunity against infectious diseases and provides clue for successful vaccination. After receiving help from CD4 T cells, pathogen-specific CD8 T cells are appropriately activated to control the spread of intracellular pathogens such as viruses. Animal models are used to investigate host-pathogen interaction. For studying the function and differentiation of adaptive T and B cells, one has to secure sufficient number of antigen-specific cells in naive state but in a normal host the frequency of T cells specific to any given antigen is very low and frustrates attempts at isolating such cells in meaningful numbers. In our laboratory we aim to understand the function and differentiation of CD8 T cells during infection with endemic pathogens such as dengue virus, Chikungunya virus and protozoan parasites such as Plasmodium in addition to herpes viruses, the latter being the most successful pathogen. Employing various molecular and immunological approaches, we try to understand the host-pathogen interaction. We are also putting efforts in developing novel animal models to study immunity and immunopathology during viral infections. We welcome creative colleagues who are interested in learning and contributing to the advancement of immunology to join our group.

• Rouse BT and Sehrawat S (2010) Immunity and immunopathology to viruses: what decides the outcome? Nature reviews Immunology 10 (7), 514

• Sehrawat S, Kirak O, Koenig PA, Issacson MK, Marques S, Bozkurt G, Simas JP, Jaenisch R and Ploegh HL (2012). CD8+ T cells from mice transnuclear for a TCR that recognizes a single H-2Kb-restricted MHV68 epitope derived from gB (ORF8) help control the infection. Cell rep 1: 461-471.

• R Sarkar, A Mathew, S Sehrawat (2019) Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells Confer Infectious Tolerance to Dampen Virus-Induced Tissue Immunoinflammation The Journal of Immunology, ji1900142

• Kaur M, Kumar D, Butty V, Singh S, Esteban A, Fink G R, Ploegh HL and Sehrawat S (2018) Galectin-3 Regulates γ-Herpesvirus Specific CD8 T Cell Immunity iScience 9, 101-119

• Sehrawat S, Koenig, PA, Kirak O, Schlieker C and Ploegh HL (2013) A catalytically inactive mutant of deubiquitylase YOD-1 enhances the antigen cross presentation. Blood 121(7):1145-56