Assoc Prof Suraj Parihar

Associate Professor, Suraj P. Parihar, PhD (University of Cape Town)

-    Associate Member- Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IDM), Faculty of Health Sciences, UCT.
-    Contributing Investigator- Wellcome Centre for Infectious disease Research in Africa (CIDRI-Africa), Department of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, UCT.
-    Honorary Extraordinary Associate Professor, Human Metabolomics, North West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
-    Y2-rated researcher-National Research Foundation (NRF), South Africa.
-    Academic Lead IDM Biosafety Level 3 Core Facilities
-    Chair, Faculty Biosafety Committee (FBC)
-    Chair, Institutional Review Committee (IRC-Animal Research sub-committee)

Key areas of expertise: Immunology, Immunometabolism, Immunogenetics, Macrophage-Mtb/Lm interactions (human/mouse), gene- and conditional gene knockout as well as Kramnik mouse models, Host-directed therapeutic targets in Listeriosis and TB. 

Suraj Parihar leads a research programme that focuses on the cellular mechanisms of macrophage killing effector functions in context of Listeriosis and Tuberculosis infection. is an immunologist with research aims at understanding host-pathogen interactions. He aims to identify host factors/products, exploited by intracellular pathogens (M. tuberculosis and L. monocytogenes) for their survival and/or evasion within macrophages and whole animal models. His research focuses on host-directed therapies as alternative and innovative strategies. To this end, he uses transcriptomics, proteomics, repurposed drugs/chemical inhibitors and gene knockdown (siRNA/shRNA), gene- and conditional gene-deficient and kramnik murine models. He received Post-doctoral fellowship(s) from Arturo Falaschi ICGEB (2013), Claude Leon Foundation and Clinical Infectious Disease Research Initiative (CIDRI) (2014-2016) and Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund, Japan (2017).

Selected publications:

See publications and profile on Research Gate.

Contact details:

Room N3.1.06, Wernher & Beit North,
IDM, Faculty of Health Sciences,
University of Cape Town,
Anzio Road, Observatory 7925, Cape Town

Phone: +27 21 650 4883
Email: suraj.parihar@uct.ac.za

Alternate site: http://www.cidri-africa.uct.ac.za/cidri-africa/about/contributing-investigators 

Group members:

Collaborations:

Prof David G Russell, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA
Prof Thomas Hawn, Washington University, Seattle, USA
Dr Maximiliano Gutierrez, Francis Crick Institute, London, United Kingdom
Dr Harukazu Suzuki, RIKEN Yokohama, Japan
Prof Musa Mhlanga, Radboud University, the Netherlands
Makram Essafi, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunisia
Prof Mirza Baig, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Indore, India