Prof. Sasha Shafikhani

Prof. Sasha Shafikhani is a cellular microbiologist whose research bridges pathogen biology and mammalian cell biology to understand the mechanisms that drive infection and tissue injury. The Shafikhani Research Lab uses insights gained from studying bacterial pathogens as a powerful approach to uncover fundamental cellular processes in the host and translate these discoveries toward improved strategies for infection control and wound healing.

A major focus of the laboratory is understanding the virulence mechanisms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an important opportunistic pathogen associated with difficult-to-treat wound infections. The lab investigates how bacterial virulence factors, including secreted toxins, interact with host cells and disrupt cellular functions. By defining these pathogen–host interactions, the laboratory seeks to understand how bacterial infections establish, persist, and cause tissue damage.

In parallel, the lab investigates the eukaryotic host responses to infection and the mechanisms that enable tissues to defend against bacterial pathogens. These studies examine how host cells recognize and respond to infection, how immune and cellular signaling pathways are altered, and how these responses ultimately influence infection control and tissue repair.

An important and distinctive component of the laboratory's research strategy is the use of bacterial toxins as molecular tools to study fundamental mammalian cellular processes. Rather than viewing bacterial toxins solely as disease-causing factors, the lab uses them as precise biological probes to uncover mechanisms regulating processes such as cytokinesis, apoptotic programmed cell death, and apoptotic compensatory proliferation signaling. These studies provide insight into how cellular pathways are coordinated during normal tissue homeostasis and how their disruption can contribute to disease.

Undergraduate Education
University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, California, B.A., Molecular Cell Biology, 1991

Graduate Education
University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, California, Ph.D., Microbiology, 2001

Fellowship
University of California, San Francisco in San Francisco, California, Infectious Diseases, 2008

• Current invited to serve as an editor on Journal of Clinical Immunology and Immunotherapy, 2014

• The Harry J. Lloyd Charitable Trust Nominee, Chicago, 2013

• Current invited to serve as an editor on Austin Journal of Clinical Immunology, 2013

• Current invited to serve as an editor on Dataset Papers in Microbiology journal, 2012

• Pew Scholar Program Nominee, Chicago, 2010

• UCR Young Investigator Award, Chicago, 2009-10

• National Institutes of Health, Ruth M. Kirschstein NRSA Award, University of California, San Francisco, 2003-06

• Water Resources Quality Grant- Role (Graduate Student Investigator), University of California, Berkeley, 1997

• Cal Bear Honorary Scholarship, University of California, Berkeley, 1990

• Cal Bear Honorary Scholarship, University of California, Berkeley, 1989

• Best Tutor Award, 1988