Assistant Professor of Neurology, Medicine (BMIR/QSU) and, by courtesy, Biomedical Data Science
The Blish lab is focused on using a systems immunology approach to develop new methods to prevent and control infectious diseases. Our studies are highly translational in nature, bringing comprehensive immune profiling techniques such as mass cytometry to clinical and epidemiologic studies of HIV transmission and influenza vaccination. We are particularly interested in the role of NK cells in viral immunity, the etiology behind the susceptibility of pregnant women to viruses, and the impact of viral diversity and escape in the interplay between the virus and the host immune response.
We study how endocytic pathogens such as bacterial toxins, viruses, and protein aggregates enter the cell, disrupt homeostasis, and cause apoptosis. More broadly, we would like to understand how diverse stresses induced by biological, chemical, and therapeutic agents signal to the cell death machinery.
To do this, we use basic cell biology and biochemistry, as well as novel ultra-complex shRNA libraries we have developed, which have allowed the first systematic genetic interaction maps in mammalian cells. A complementary interest is the development of technologies for screening and measuring genetic interactions, with the ultimate goal of finding synergistic drug targets for endocytic pathogens and other diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s.
Medical imaging informatics, image reconstruction, Image-guided intervention, CT, MRI and radionuclide imaging (PET/CT, SPECT/CT), intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), treatment planning and plan optimization, image segmentation and deformable registration, tele-radiology/treatment planning, radiobiology modeling, biologically conformable radiation therapy (BCR), application of molecular imaging to radiation oncology.