Sanjay Jain, M.D.

Sanjay Jain, M.D., Assistant Professor of Pediatrics

sjain5@jhmi.edu

Research interests: My research interests include pathogenesis of central nervous system (CNS) tuberculosis, comparing Mycobacterium tuberculosis genotypic requirements across animal models and in the development of imaging technology for real-time evaluation of M. tuberculosis infection in animal models and human beings.

Recent work: We have developed both in vitro and in vivo murine models to study CNS invasion by M. tuberculosis. Using genotypically defined M. tuberculosis transposon mutants, we have shown that certain M. tuberculosis genes are required for invasion into the CNS and that this phenotype is unique to the CNS and not seen in the lungs. We are currently studying the role of these genes in CNS invasion. Further, we are also studying the unique immune-privileged host environment in the CNS and its effect on M. tuberculosis infection.

Using pooled infections with genotypically defined M. tuberculosis transposon mutants, we have compared M. tuberculosis genotypic requirements across 2 different animal species – guinea pigs (which display caseous necrosis in response to tuberculosis) and the standard mouse model. By performing long term mouse infection, we found that both models identify the same M. tuberculosis genes for survival in the lung. However, the guinea pig model identified these M. tuberculosis genes much earlier. We believe that this difference is likely due to the caseous necrosis (and therefore more stringent immunological stressors) in the guinea pig model. Further studies are underway to identify the mechanisms involved with this differential phenotype displayed by some of the mutants identified in this study.

To simply pre-clinical evaluation of anti-tuberculosis regimens, we are developing existing and novel imaging technologies to evaluate M. tuberculosis infections in real-time. We anticipate that not only will these imaging technologies be used for experimental animal infections but could also be used for diagnosis and follow up of human tuberculosis disease in the future. In collaboration with Dr. Martin Pomper at Johns Hopkins, we have used CT and PET imaging to evaluate the anatomic and inflammatory state of lungs of animals experimentally infected with M. tuberculosis. Further, using novel radio-nucleotide imaging technology we have also been able to image live mycobacteria using SPECT imaging. We are currently involved with optimizing this imaging technology for evaluating the response to anti-tuberculosis therapy in animal models of tuberculosis.

Dr. Jain's curriculum vitae

Also see: http://in.news.yahoo.com/071206/32/6o4i7.html and

Peer-reviewed publications: