Neda Sattarnezhad Oskouei
Stanford University, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the brain and spinal cord. It is the most common cause of non-traumatic disability in young adults, affecting about one million people in the U.S.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Microbiology & Immunology
Neuroscience
- Topics
multiple sclerosis
Epstein-Barr virus
molecular mimicry
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2029
What they work on
- Characterize multiple sclerosis patient cohorts with proteomic analysis of anti-EBV antibodies and nerve-damage markers, to test how mimicry between EBV proteins such as EBNA1 and the brain protein GlialCAM drives MS.
- Define whether Epstein-Barr virus reactivation, when the dormant virus becomes active again, relates to relapses, progression and treatment response in MS patients.
- Integrate anti-EBV antibody levels with genetic, clinical and brain-imaging data from MS patients using informatics analysis to find associations with disease features.
More about the research
Nearly all MS patients were infected with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a common herpes virus, before the disease began. How the virus contributes remains unclear. This project asks how EBV, and the immune response to it, drive MS onset, relapses and progression.
Why it matters
Clarifying how Epstein-Barr virus drives multiple sclerosis could point to treatments that prevent or target the EBV infection itself. Current approaches broadly deplete B cells or block immune cells from moving. Antibody patterns could also help identify patients at risk of relapse or progression and predict how they will respond to therapy.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Nancy L Monson
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether plasmablasts, antibody-secreting cells derived from B cells and expanded in African American and Hispanic patients with multiple sclerosis, make antibodies that bind to neurons.
Paul Lieberman
University of Pennsylvania, PA·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether EBV reshapes the host low-oxygen response during primary infection to keep infected cells alive, examining how the viral proteins EBNA1 and EBNA2 bind and regulate host hypoxia genes including HIF1A.
Timothy Meier
Medical College of Wisconsin, WI·Neuroscience
Test whether cytomegalovirus (CMV) serostatus changes brain recovery after sport-related concussion, measured by diffusion MRI, cortical thickness and resting-state functional connectivity in CARE Consortium athletes.
The school
Stanford University: 87 labs on PI Pages, $1.6B a year on research, 739 research doctorates a year.
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