Nilabh Shastri, Ph.D.

Nilabh Shastri was a 1987 biomedical scholar and professor at Johns Hopkins University until his death in 2021. His lab studied mechanisms of immune surveillance. The immune system detects and eliminates microbial pathogens and cancer cells. Regrettably, the immune system also rejects transplanted tissues and often self-tissues as well. His work identified several antigen genes that uniquely define cancer cells, microbial pathogens, and transplanted tissues as targets for the immune system. His group studied the molecular mechanisms that generate these antigenic structures and determine their immunogenicity.