Personal Statement
Our laboratory is interested in the mechanisms by which specific viruses exploit existing endocytosis and trafficking machinery across disparate cell types, a process that also dictates specific proinflammatory responses by infected cells. Our lab has shown that a consensus dogma of viral entry as recorded earlier in immortalized cell lines does not fit the natural infection. Our long-term research goal is to elucidate the intracellular trafficking of adenoviruses in different cell types and their trafficking pathway-specific cellular responses, in order to develop specific, information-based therapeutic approaches to infection.
We use human adenoviruses for our studies, specifically, the species D, which causes epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (EKC), commonly known as pink eye. EKC, is an acute and highly contagious disease of the eye, with corneal involvement, and can sometimes cause severe and prolonged corneal stromal inflammation. The stromal inflammation can cause photosensitivity or blurred vision. Our current projects include understanding the mechanism of immune cell migration into the corneal stroma using 3D cultures, cross talk between viral and host proteins during infection.
We are a well funded lab.
To learn more about what we do contact jrajaiya@salud.unm.edu
Areas of Specialty
Molecular virology, Cell biology, Adenoviral pathogenesis, Epigenetics, Bio-infomatics and Adenovirus genomics.
Achievements & Awards
Excellence in Teaching award, Molecular and Cellular Basis of Medicine (IN751.0)
Harvard Medical School
Eleanor and Miles Shore Scholar, Mass. Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School
ATI (Award to Inventors)-Patent. Medical Research Council, Hammersmith, London, UK “Diagnosis of Tuberculosisâ€
Gender
Not Available
Languages
- English
- Tamil
- Hindi
Research and Scholarship
1) Ismail AM, Saha A, Lee JS, Painter DF, Chen Y, Singh G, Condezo GN, Chodosh J, San MartÃn C, Rajaiya J. RANBP2 and USP9x regulate nuclear import of adenovirus minor coat protein IIIa. PLoS Pathog. 2022 Jun 16;18(6):e1010588. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1010588. PMID: 35709296; PMCID: PMC9242475.
2) Lee JY, Lee JS, Materne EC, Rajala R, Ismail AM, Seto D, Dyer DW, Rajaiya J, Chodosh J. Bacterial RecA protein promotes adenoviral recombination during in vitro infection. mSphere. 2018 Jun 20;3(3). pii: e00105-18. doi: 10.1128/mSphere.00105-18.
3) Lee JS, Ismail AM, Lee JY, Zhou X, Materne EC, Chodosh J, Rajaiya J. Impact of dynamin 2 on adenovirus nuclear entry. Virology 2019;529:43-56. doi: 10.1016/j.virol.2019.01.008.
4) Pennington MR, Saha A, Painter DF, Gavazzi C, Ismail AM, Zhou X, Chodosh J, Rajaiya J. Disparate Entry of Adenoviruses Dictates Differential Innate Immune Responses on the Ocular Surface. Microorganisms. 2019 Sep 13;7(9):351. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms7090351. PMID: 31540200; PMCID: PMC6780103.