Scheherazade Sadegh-Nasseri, Ph.D.

Dr. Scheherazade Sadegh-Nasseri is a professor of pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her research focuses on molecular mechanisms in antigen processing and presentation, T cell memory survival, T cell activation, and T cell tolerance.

Dr. Sadegh-Nasseri and her lab made the notable discovery that binding of peptides to MHC class II induces different conformations, a finding that has formed the basis for how peptide-MHC class II complexes are recognized and edited by the MHC class II accessory molecules. They have maintained a leading role in understanding mechanisms in peptide binding and the role of MHC class II accessory molecules, HLA-DM and HLA-DO in peptide exchange and editing. The team also reported the first cell free reductionist antigen processing system that identifies immunodominant epitopes from protein antigens for recognition by helper T cells. This system has led to the discovery that antigen presentation for pathogens and autoantigens follow divergent paths, a finding that has significant impact in our understanding of antigen presentation to helper T cells.

Dr. Sadegh-Nasseri received her undergraduate degree from Pahlavi University in Iran and her M.Sc. in a joint program with Harvard University and Teheran University in Iran. She earned her Ph.D. from University of California at Los Angeles. She was a Cancer Research Institute Postdoctoral Scholar in Chemistry Department at Stanford University, and a Sr. Staff Fellow in Laboratory of Immunology of NIAID at NIH prior to her current department at the JHU.