Office:	UPMC Montefiore, NW628
	3459 Fifth Avenue
	Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Phone:	412-692-2210
Fax:	412-692-2260
E-mail:	sud29@pitt.edu

Education
	BS-Zoology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India, 2005
	MS-Biochemistry, Jiwaji University, Gwalior, India, 2007
	PhD-Biochemistry, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland, 2012

Dr. Das is interested primarily in two areas, which are immunoregulatory mechanisms that mediate response to respiratory pathogens and mechanisms that prevent lung epithelial damage and injury during infections and those that protect from epithelial damage. Her early work primarily focused on understanding the molecular and immunological mechanisms that underlie severe illness in children infected by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). She identified a pathogenic role for ?d T cells in the context of specific immune deficiencies of CX3CR1 due to RSV infection in early life. She showed that the lungs of CX3CR1-deficient mice expressed higher level of IL-1ß, which is a potent inducer of IL-17 in ?d T cells driving their accumulation post infection. In related studies she discovered the ability of the cytokine IL-22 to reduce viral titer in infected primary human airway epithelial cells and also in the lungs of newborn mice with cellular autophagy playing a role in the interplay between RSV and IL-22. Her current research is focused on host immune responses to pulmonary bacterial infections. Using scRNA-seq approaches a novel gene signature was identified in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of subjects with sepsis and ARDS as compared to that in cells of patients with sepsis only. Her ongoing research with Pseudomonas and Klebsiella infection models is directed towards understanding of diverse host response specific to the pathogen and the role of innate immune cells in resolution of lung inflammation and clearance of bacteria.

Selected Publications: