Rate My Professor Venuprasad Poojary

Venuprasad Poojary, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Internal Medicine and Immunology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, a position he has held since joining the faculty in 2019. Originally from Mangalore, India, he earned a Bachelor's degree in biochemistry and a Master's degree in bioscience from Mangalore University. He obtained his Doctoral degree in immunology from the National Center for Cell Science in Kolkata, India, followed by postdoctoral training in immunology and cell signaling at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology in San Diego, California. Dr. Poojary is a member of the American Association of Immunologists since 2006, the American Association for Cancer Research since 2009, the American Society of Cell Biology since 2009, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 2009. He leads the Poojary Lab, which investigates regulatory mechanisms in immune cells that prevent chronic inflammation underlying autoimmunity and cancer, with a focus on gastrointestinal disorders.

Dr. Poojary's research specializations encompass colon cancer, gut microbiota, inflammasome activation, inflammatory bowel diseases, and Th17/Treg cell differentiation, emphasizing post-translational modifications such as ubiquitination and SUMOylation in immune tolerance and T cell differentiation. His laboratory aims to identify key immune checkpoints targetable for therapeutic intervention and drug development in gastrointestinal inflammation and tumorigenesis. Key publications include "RORγt-Raftlin1 complex regulates the pathogenicity of Th17 cells and colonic inflammation" (Nature Communications, 2023), "Pak2-mediated phosphorylation promotes RORγt ubiquitination and inhibits colonic inflammation" (Cell Reports, 2022), "NLRP6 in host defense and intestinal inflammation" (Cell Reports, 2021), "Deubiquitination of NLRP6 inflammasome by Cyld critically regulates intestinal inflammation" (Nature Immunology, 2020), "Itch inhibits IL-17-mediated colon inflammation and tumorigenesis by RORγt ubiquitination" (Nature Immunology, 2016), "SUMOylation of RORγt inhibits IL-17 expression and inflammation via HDAC2" (Nature Communications, 2018), and "The E3 ubiquitin ligase Itch regulates expression of transcription factor Foxp3 and airway inflammation by enhancing the function of transcription factor TIEG1" (Nature Immunology, 2008). He has also contributed chapters such as "Immune regulation by ubiquitin conjugation" in Lymphocyte Signal Transduction (2008) and "Cbl-b-mediated regulation of cell signaling and cancer" in Signaling Pathways in Immune Cells (2011).