SUMMARY
The research interests of Roshini S. Abraham, Ph.D., include both clinical and translational aspects of cellular and molecular immunology in several areas of clinical laboratory diagnostics and mechanisms of disease pathogenesis.
Dr. Abraham's clinical research efforts are done in close collaboration with a number of interdisciplinary clinical groups and scientists at Mayo Clinic in allergy, immunology, hematology, rheumatology, pulmonary and critical care medicine, oncology, and the Transplant Center.
Focus areas
The three main focus areas of Dr. Abraham's research are:
- Primary immunodeficiency, which are inherited (congenital) defects of the immune system
- Assessment of immune competence, function and reconstitution in a variety of clinical contexts, particularly solid organ transplantation, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, immunotherapy and cancer vaccines
- Elucidating the requirements for immune reconstitution after hematopoietic stem cell or bone marrow transplant
Significance to patient care
Dr. Abraham's group is interested in developing state-of-the-art clinically robust laboratory methods to assess immune competence and reconstitution that can be used both in the diagnostic clinical setting and for standardized evaluation of immune function in clinical trials.
Additionally, her group is conducting studies exploring the role of inflammatory cytokines in the pathogenesis and temporal regulation of acute lung injury post-hematopoietic stem cell transplant (both allogeneic and autologous).