Research Fellow, Vascular Biology Program, Boston Children's Hospital
Research Fellow, Harvard Medical School
Raj received Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Delhi, India. He then pursued his doctorate at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India, in the laboratory of professor Shailja Singh. In his doctoral studies, Raj studied how Sphingosine-1-Phosphate is involved in Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite growth and development as well as how the parasite utilizes sphingolipids from both intraerythrocytic and extracellular reservoirs for its growth and development during the pathogenic asexual blood stages and transmissible gametocyte stages, which are essential to malaria parasite life cycle progression.
The goal of his research in Dr. Timothy Hla's laboratory is to increase his understanding of sphingolipid biology in in vivo and in vitro. Raj joined the Hla lab in January 2023 in order to investigate the role of S1P receptor 1 in the pathogenesis of H1N1 infection.
Publication Highlights:
Sah RK, Anand S, Dar W, et al. Host-Erythrocytic Sphingosine-1-Phosphate Regulates Plasmodium Histone Deacetylase Activity and Exhibits Epigenetic Control over Cell Death and Differentiation. Microbiol Spectr. 2023
Sah RK, Pati S, Saini M, Singh S. Erythrocyte sphingosine kinase regulates intraerythrocytic development of Plasmodium falciparum. Sci Rep. 2021
Sah RK, Pati S, Saini M, et al. Reduction of Sphingosine Kinase 1 Phosphorylation and Activity in Plasmodium-Infected Erythrocytes. Front Cell Dev Biol. 2020