Dr. Samithamby ("Jey") Jeyaseelan
Director
Professor
Pathobiological Sciences (PBS)
Biography:
Dr. Jey, Veterinarian-Scientist (DVM/PhD), is an internationally recognized investigator in the area of innate immunity against pathogens as it relates to inflammation and injury in the lungs and extrapulmonary organs. His educational interest primarily focuses on training the next generation of veterinarian-scientists and scientists interested in inflammation, infectious disease and innate immunity. He is the Dr. William L. Jenkins Endowed Professor and has served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Immunology and on the Editorial Boards of Clinical and Vaccine Immunology and Infection and Immunity. He currently serves as an Academic Editor for PLoS ONE and a Review Editor for Frontiers in Immunology and is on the Editorial Boards of American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, and Shock. He was appointed to the faculty of Louisiana State University (LSU) in 2007 and was promoted to Professor in 2013. In 2019, he founded the NIH/NIGMS-supported Center for Lung Biology and Disease (CLBD) and serves as the inaugural Director. The Center’s mission is to understand the molecular and cellular immunological mechanisms associated with the pathogenesis of both Infectious and non-Infectious lung diseases.
Teaching Interests:
Dr. Jey is actively involved in teaching of Veterinary Medical students in Bacteriology, Mycology and Immunology, and Graduate students in Advanced Immunology and Grant Writing.
Research Interests:
Pathogenesis of Pulmonary Diseases: The overall research goal of the Lung Biology Lab is to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms responsible for neutrophil recruitment, priming, and activation in infected lungs, smoke-exposed lungs, and smoke-exposed lungs and organs followed by infection in the lungs and other organs/tissues. In particular, the Lung Biology Lab is interested in determining the role of pattern recognition receptors (TLRs and NLRs) and their adaptors with the development of the innate immune response in the lung in murine models. Multiple bacterial pathogens that are studied include: Klebsiella pneumoniae, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Legionella pneumophila, as causative pathogens of pneumonia. Specific interests of the respiratory disease group include: 1) Delineation of the role of pattern recognition receptors (Toll-like and NOD-like) and neutrophil chemokines, CXCL1, CXCL2, and CXCL5, in lung inflammation and host defense; 2) Elucidation of the mechanisms by which second-hand smoke makes the host susceptible to bacterial infection; 3) Determination of the host defense mechanisms associated with sepsis/septic peritonitis; and 4) Examination of the role of mouse lung-derived stem cells in host protection during bacterial pneumonia. Appropriate gene-deficient mice and human and murine primary cells are currently being used. In addition, non-human primate (NHP) models of bacterial lung infection are being developed with the collaboration of Tulane National Primate Center (TNPRC). The ultimate goal of the basic and translation program is to resolve the mechanisms by which these bacterial pathogens cause inflammation in various tissues, and ultimately to design novel treatments and prevention strategies to attenuate inflammation-mediated injury and/or minimize microbial burden.
Pathogenesis of Sepsis: The overall goal of this research is to understand the molecular and cellular immunological mechanisms associated with sepsis. We are particularly interested in innate immune molecules, such as TLRs, NLRs and chemokines in the induction of sepsis.
TRAINING POSITIONS AVAILABLE
We are always interested in motivated new team members, including undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and junior faculty [Asst Professors (Research Track)]
Former Postdoctoral Researchers: Prince Immanuel, Shanshan Cai, Shen Li, Yanru Zhang, Sanjay Batra, Ritwij Kulkarni, Ratna Gupta, Pankaj Baral, Sangeetha Ravi Kumar
Former Graduate Students: Gayathriy Balamayooran, Balamayooran Theivanthiran, Mary Leissinger, Liliang Jin, Sagar Paudel, Laxman Ghimire, Scott Bergeron
Former Undergraduate Students: John Mai, Chris Johnson, Melanie Warren, Antonique Larry, Taylor Ferguson, Jonte Ellison, Joselyn Knowling, Joseph DeCorte, John Le, Julia Luraguiz
Former Summer Scholars: Ann Craig, Sainath Babu, Jannel Irons, William Kuhs, Sachin Khiste, Ipsita Subudhi, Matthew Schexnayder, Candice Carr, Elsie Phillips
PRESS RELEASES
American Thoracic Society (ATS) Journals Eminent Reviewer Award
LSU Rainmaker (Senior Scholar)
Research Interest Video
Dr. William L. Jenkins Endowed Professorship
LSU Garners $11.5 M NIH grant to Establish Louisiana Pulmonary Center
NIH COBRE Award Video
Postdoctoral researcher wins AHA fellowship
Graduate student wins prestigious NIH fellowship
Undergraduate student wins multiple awards
Undergraduate student among the Tiger Twelve Class of 2019
Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher of 2019
LSU COVID-19 Experts
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