Shailesh K. Shahi

Dr. Shailesh Shahi is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in the Department of Pathology, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa, USA. Dr. Shahi received his MS and Ph.D. degree in Biotechnology from the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. His doctoral research showed that infections in diabetic foot ulcers are of polymicrobial in origin and multidrug-resistant bacteria are most prevalent. The novel multiplex PCR assay designed in his study is useful in clinical diagnostics of Escherichia coli and associated multidrug-resistant genes.

Dr. Shahi joined Mangalam’s lab at the Department of Pathology, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, USA as a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in 2015. The major goal of his postdoctoral research is to understand the mechanism through which gut microbiome regulates the immune system to maintain a healthy state of the host. He has shown the disease suppressing ability of human gut commensal Prevotella in the animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS). Furthermore, he showed that Prevotella suppresses disease as efficiently as Copaxone and Betaseron (commonly used MS drug) in HLA-class-II transgenic animal model of MS. His findings will help in developing novel therapeutic options to treat MS.

Dr. Shahi's vision is to make a difference in the field of Medical Research. He aims to develop therapeutic options for MS patients. He has previously presented his innovative research on the role of the gut microbiome in MS at several international and national conferences. In addition, Dr. Shahi is enthusiastic about mentoring young researchers of science.

Awards:

2007: Best Paper Award (Microbial Diversity in Diabetic foot Infection) in National Conference at SBSPGI, Dehradun, India.

2010: 2nd Best Paper Award in 9th Annual National Conference of Diabetic Foot Society of India, Bangalore, India.

2014: Young Scientist Award (Research Grant) by Department of Science Technology, Government of India, New Delhi, India.

2016: National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s Travel Award recipients for 2016 Autumn Immunology Conference held in Chicago, USA.

2017: American Association of Immunology Travel Award recipients (Block presentation) for Immunology- 2017, Conference held in Washington, D.C., USA.

2018: Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis Educational (ACTRIMS) Travel Award recipient for ACTRIMS Forum 2018 Conference held in San Diego, California,USA.

2018: American Association of Immunology Travel Award recipients (Block presentation) for Immunology- 2018, Conference held in Austin, TX, USA.

2019: American Association of Immunology Travel Award recipients (Block presentation) for Immunology- 2019, Conference held to be in San Diego, California, USA.