Dr. Khan received his PhD in Microbiology from the Institute of Medical Science, B.H.U. in Varanasi, India. Before moving to GW in 2006, he was a Professor in the Department of Microbiology at LSUHSC in New Orleans, LA and an Associate Professor in Medicine and Microbiology at Dartmouth Medical School. Dr. Khan's research career began more than 23 years ago, when he started to study the development of CD8+ T cell immunity against parasitic infections. Since then, his work has led to more than 60 publications in high quality journals.
Research
Dr. Khan's laboratory has many ongoing projects, including the evaluation of host immunity and pathogenesis of Encephalitozoan cuniculi and determination of the dendritic cell response to this gut pathogen in aging populations. This research began approximately 12 years ago when very little information was known regarding protective immunity against this group of pathogens. Through their pioneering work, Dr. Khan's laboratory demonstrated the role of CD8+ T cells, perforin-mediated cytotoxicity and cytokines in protection against the pathogen. Their research has further focused on the gut immune response against this pathogen, which is a highly understudied area. Dr. Khan's team has demonstrated early induction of CD8??+ IELs in the gut, their importance in protective immunity and the role of dendritic cells in priming this response. A second project focuses on the long-term immunity against toxoplasmosis and understanding the development and maintenance of CD8+ T cell immunity during peri-oral infection and identifying factors responsible for initiation of robust CD8+ T cell immunity against the parasite and conditions that are essential for its persistence. Finally, Dr. Khan is also interested in projects to identify vaccine targets to prevent toxoplasmosis. This work focuses on the use of major surface proteins as immunogens and testing their ability to induce protective immunity.
For more information, please visit the Khan lab website.