Journal of Bacteriology & Parasitology

Nahed Ismail

Nahed Ismail
Associate Professor, Department of Pathology, Meharry Medical College
USA

Biography

Dr. Nahed Ismail has received her Medical degree from Tanta University Egypt during the period of 1982-1988. She received an MSc in Microbiology and Immunology from University of Toronto Ontario Canada during the period of 19931995. She has received her PhD in Microbiology and Immunology University of Saskatchewan Saskatchewan Canada during the period of 19962000. She did a Medical Microbiology Fellowship at University of Texas Medical branch Galveston during the period of 2000-2003. She is a BoardCertified Medical Microbiologist and Immunologist from American Board of Medical Microbiology and Specialist in Microbiology by the Board of Registry American Society of Clinical Pathology. She has an extensive background in clinical and basic microbiology and immunology and specific training and expertise in the areas of hostpathogen interaction and immunopathogenesis of infectious diseases mainly those caused by infection with intracellular bacteria. Currently she is working as Associate Professor Department of Pathology and Department of Microbiology and Immunology Meharry medical College Nashville TN. She is serving as an ad hoc reviewer for several reputed journals like Journal of Immunology, PLOS, neglected tropical diseases, infection and immunity, diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. She has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications book chapters and review articles. She is a member of American Society for Microbiology ASM American Association of Immunologists AAI American Society for Rickettsiology and American Society of Clinical Pathology ASCP. She is honored with Excellence in Teaching Award Experimental Pathology Graduate program University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Her recent paper in Infection and Immunity 2009 titled “Persistent infection contributes to heterologous protective immunity against fatal ehrlichiosis” was selected for the SPOTLIGHT section by the editors of Infection and Immunity Journal.

Research Interest

The main focus of Dr. Ismail lab is analysis of host defense and the immunological mechanisms that determine susceptibility or resistance to Tick-borne diseases including; Human monocytotropic ehrlichiosis caused by monocytotropic Ehrlichia chaffeensis and Rickettsiosis caused by Rickettsia.Human monocytotropic ehrlichiosis (HME) is a life threatening, emerging infectious disease caused by Ehrlichia chaffeensis, an obligatory intracellular bacterium for which there is no a well-established animal model. My research is directed towards understanding the mechanisms of protective immunity against infection with ehrlichial strains that are closely related to E. chaffeensis, as well as defining the immunological and molecular basis of pathogenesis associated with the disease. Using different murine models of HME, we were able to analyze the type of immune response/host factors that contribute to resistance and susceptibility to infection. The goal of Dr. Ismail laboratory is to further identify host or microbial factors that mediate pathogenesis and characterize ehrlichial molecules that can modulate host immune responses. In addition, Dr. Ismail’s research also focuses on better defining the cellular and humoral immune mechanisms by which such long term memory responses and protection against secondary bacterial infection work as well as identifying the candidate immunodominant antigen(s) that strongly stimulate both T and B cell responses in the murine models of human disease. Another research interest is exploring the mechanism of action of T-cell subsets in inflammatory processes and host defense using gene-targeted mice that lack key components in immune regulation, the nature of cells migrating to different organs, the specificity and the function of these cells. These studies will assist in the design of rational vaccination strategies for prevention and immunotherapeutic treatment of human monocytotropic ehrlichiosis.