T cells in Schistosomiasis-PH paper published

Dara Fonseca Balladares is the first author of a manuscript studying the location-specific roles of CD4 T cells in schistosomiasis-induced pulmonary hypertension. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39273153/

Interstitial macrophages in PH papers published

In close collaboration with colleagues at the University of Colorado, we published 2 papers in Frontiers in Immunology characterizing the interstitial macrophage populations in schistosomiasis (first author Rahul Kumar-UCSF) and hypoxia (first author Sushil Kumar-Univ of Colorado) pulmonary...

S. haematobium paper published

Biruk Kassa was the first author of a publication from our lab reporting that Schistosoma haematobium causes more mild experimental pulmonary hypertension than S. mansoni. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38312832/

PVRI Conference Presentations

Our group had several posters and presentations at the 2024 PVRI conference in London, UK. - Dara Fonseca Balladares presented on the role of T cells in Schistosoma-induced PH - Brian Graham presented on Cardiopulmonary Outcomes of Schistosomiasis-Infected Patients in the Post-COVID Era at the...

Dexamethasone Prophylaxis Paper Published

In collaboration with Prof. Pasha at the Hypoxia Institute in Dehli, India, we published a paper investigating the peripheral blood mononuclear cell transcriptome in individuals who travelled to high elevation, half of whom received dexamethasone prophylaxis, finding that dexamethasone suppressed...

Manuscript on pulmonary hypertension due to schistosomiasis versus portal hypertension published

In collaboration with several colleagues in Brazil and elsewhere, we published an opinion piece in JHLT Open distinguishing pulmonary arterial hypertension due to schistosomiasis from that due to portal hypertension.  https://www.jhltopen.org/article/S2950-1334(23)00007-1/fulltext

R21 Grant Received

In collaboration with Dr. Joan Hilton (the contact PI: UCSF Dept of Epidemiology and Biostatistics), we received an R21 grant to study diagnostic prediction models in PAH, with screening for schistosomiasis-PAH in at-risk populations in Ethiopia and Zambia.

ATS 2023 Presentations by our Group

Our group is presenting several abstracts on our active research projects at the 2023 American Thoracic Society International Conference in Washington DC: Role of T Lymphocyte Location in Schistosoma-induced Pulmonary Hypertension. First author: Dara Fonseca Balladares (UCSF) Role of Inflammatory...

Repetitive Schistosoma exposure paper published

We published that repeated Schistosoma egg exposure induces persistent vascular remodeling associated with perivascular fibrosis. This was a great collaboration with researchers at the University of Colorado and Stanford.   https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37014925/

UCSF RAP Grant Received

In collaboration with Joan Hilton, ScD, MPH in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics (https://profiles.ucsf.edu/joan.hilton), we received a UCSF Research Allocation Program (RAP) Team Science Grant.