Journal of Allergy & Therapy

Meenakshi Arora

Biography

Dr. Meenakshi Arora received her M.Biotech in 1995 and her PhD in 1999 from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. She completed her first post-doctoral fellowship at School of Biosciences, University of California Irvine. After spending three years as a Research Associate in the laboratory of Dr. Prabir Ray, she was promoted to full time faculty as Research Assistant Professor in Dr. Prabir Ray’s group in Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine in 2007.

Research Interest

Dr. Arora’s post-doctoral research focused on the immunomodulatory functions of statins, best known as cholesterol-reducing agents. These studies showed for the first time the ability of statins to act on dendritic cells to bias T cell differentiation towards the Th2 lineage. Dr. Arora’s current research in Dr. Ray’s group mainly focuses on the generation of myeloid suppressor cells and their role in the regulation of pulmonary immune responses. Her studies also address the possible mechanisms underlying MSC-mediated suppression and maintenance of long-term tolerance in the lung diseases. She was awarded an independent Beginning Grant-in-aid from American Heart Association in 2008 to study the role of these myeloid suppressor cells in immunologic tolerance of organ transplantation.