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Department
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Immunology
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Hospital Title
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Associate in Medicine
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Academic Title
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Assistant Professor
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Phone
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617-355-2543
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Fax
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Email
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Omid Akbari
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Location
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300 Longwood Avenue
Boston MA 02115
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The objective of Dr. Akbari's laboratory is to: characterize and define acquired and innate immune responses at mucosal surfaces; investigate the mechanisms underlying the regulation of those responses; explore the mechanisms by which those responses contribute to inflammatory, autoimmune allergic diseases and asthma; and determine means by which those responses can be specifically manipulated.
The studies and research interests of Dr. Akbari's laboratory can be categorized into four major areas:
- T cell subsets and immunoregulation of autoimmune diseases
- the role of dendritic cells and antigen presenting cells in regulation of immune responses
- the requirements for NKT cell activation, migration and homeostasis in the context of allergic disease and asthma
- glycolipid antagonist therapies for allergic disease, asthma and other autoimmune diseases
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Dr. Akbari received his Masters and Diploma in General and Medical Microbiology from the University College London (UK). He then obtained his PhD degree from the Division of Molecular Immunology at the National Institute for Medical Research, in London, UK. He performed postdoctoral work at Stanford University, where he was promoted to a position of senior scientist. Dr. Akbari is currently an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and Associate in Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston, Division of Immunology. Dr Akbari is a recipient of the American Lung Association fellowship award, the American Lung Association Career Development Grant and, in the year 2005, he was the winner of two international awards: the Pharmacia and Henning Loewenstein Research awards for his research in the field of allergy and immunology. He is also a recipient of the 2007 Eleanor and Miles Shore Scholarship for Research in Medicine from Harvard Medical School, a 2007 Children's Hospital grant, and an RO-1 grant from National Institute of Health.
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- Akbari, O., N. Panjwani, S. Garcia, R. Tascon, D. Lowrie, and B. Stockinger. 1999. DNA vaccination: transfection and activation of dendritic cells as key events for immunity. J Exp Med 189:169-78.
- Akbari, O., R.H. DeKruyff, and D.T. Umetsu. 2001. Pulmonary dendritic cells producing IL-10 mediate tolerance induced by respiratory exposure to antigen. Nat Immunol 2:725-31.
- Akbari, O., G.J. Freeman, E.H. Meyer, E.A. Greenfield, T.T. Chang, A.H. Sharpe, G. Berry, R.H. DeKruyff, and D.T. Umetsu. 2002. Antigen-specific regulatory T cells develop via the ICOS-ICOS-ligand pathway and inhibit allergen-induced airway hyperreactivity. Nat Med 8:1024-32.
- Akbari, O., P. Stock, R.H. DeKruyff, and D.T. Umetsu. 2003. Role of regulatory T cells in allergy and asthma. Curr Opin Immunol 15:627-33.
- Akbari, O., P. Stock, E. Meyer, M. Kronenberg, S. Sidobre, T. Nakayama, M. Taniguchi, M.J. Grusby, R.H. DeKruyff, and D.T. Umetsu. 2003. Essential role of NKT cells producing IL-4 and IL-13 in the development of allergen-induced airway hyperreactivity. Nat Med 9:582-88.
- Stock, P., O. Akbari, G. Berry, G.J. Freeman, R.H. DeKruyff, and D.T. Umetsu. 2004. Induction of a TH1-like Regulatory Cell that Expresses Foxp3 and Protects Against Airway Hyperreactivity. Nat. Immunol, 5, 1149 - 56.
- Omid Akbari, John L. Faul, Elisabeth G. Hoyte, Gerald J. Berry, Jan Wahlström, Mitchell Kronenberg, Rosemarie H. DeKruyff and Dale T. Umetsu. 2006. CD4+ Invariant T Cell Receptor + NKT Cells in Bronchial Asthma . N Engl J Med, 354:1117-112.
- Omid Akbari, 2006. The role of NKT cells in development of bronchial asthma, a translational approach from animal models to human. Allergy, Aug;61(8):962-8.
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