Background
Puja Kumari's laboratory is interested in exploring innate immune mechanisms used by the host to fight bacterial pathogens and how these pathogens evade the barrier of host immunity to cause disease.
Pattern Recognition Receptors (PRRs) are special immune receptors located strategically at different locations in cells to ensure recognition of pathogens' molecular patterns and ensure appropriate immune responses. One key PRR complex involved in detecting bacterial infection is the inflammasome, a multi-protein cytosolic immune complex that activates the host inflammatory proteases caspase-1 and caspase-11 upon cytosolic detection of bacterial biomolecules (also known as PAMPs, pathogen-associated molecular pattern). These caspases mediate the activation and release of IL-1 family cytokines, pore-forming proteins gasdermin-D, and other inflammatory factors critical for host defense; however, excessive activation of these immune complexes can lead to pathological outcomes such as cytokine storming, hypothermia, disseminated intravascular coagulopathy, organ-failure, etc., leading to septic shock.
Unraveling the molecular basis of this intricate network of PRRs-PAMPs interaction-based innate immune mechanisms is critical for developing new antimicrobial therapies and designing effective vaccines. Her lab's primary focus is unraveling the molecular and cellular intricacies of innate immune sensing and signaling that regulate the inflammatory and immune responses during pathogenic infections. In particular, the lab will investigate the molecular and biochemical foundations of effector functions linked to both canonical and non-canonical inflammasomes, as well as the role of caspase-11 in antibacterial host defense.
Education
- Postdoc, University of Connecticut Health School of Medicine, Farmington, CT, USA
- PhD, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Bhopal, MP, India
- MSc, Madurai Kamaraj University, TN, India
- BSc, Ranchi University, JH, India
Research Interests
- Innate immunity in infectious and inflammatory diseases
- Inflammasomes and inflammatory cell-death
- Host-pathogen interactions and cytokine signaling
