Sunil Kumar Ahuja

Sunil K. Ahuja
Born	13 March 1961
Education	University of Alberta (M.S., 1986) Armed Forces Medical College (India) (M.D., 1983)
Scientific career
Fields	Genetics, immunology, molecular biology
Institutions	Center for Personalized Medicine (director, 2009-present) University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (professor, 2002-present) VA Center for HIV and AIDS Infection (San Antonio) (2001-present) Audie L. Murphy Memorial VA Hospital (1996-present)

Sunil Kumar Ahuja (born March 13, 1961)[1] is a professor of Medicine, Microbiology, Immunology & Biochemistry at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and an expert on the role of immunogenetics on HIV pathogenesis. Ahuja is also the Director of the Veterans Administration Research Center for AIDS and HIV-1 Infection. His most recent work, first published in the 2005 issue of Science, involves the ethnic group-specific role of CCR5 haplotype and CCL3L1 gene copy number on the progression of HIV to AIDS.[2]

Education

Sunil Ahuja received his medical degree from the Armed Forces Medical College India in 1983.[3] Following work towards a M.Sc. degree from the University of Alberta in Canada, Ahuja had his internship and residency at the SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn.

Publications

Sunil Ahuja's research has been published in many peer-reviewed journals, including Science, The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Medicine, Nature Immunology and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Honors

Ahuja has been the recipient of many honors and awards, including being named in 2001 the Elizabeth Glaser Scientist and the Burroughs Wellcome Clinical Scientist in Translational Research.[4][5] In 2005 he also was the recipient of the MERIT award from the National Institutes of Health. Less than 5% of NIH-funded researchers receive this award.[5]

In February 2008, Ahuja was listed as one of "35 People Who Will Shape Our Future" by Texas Monthly magazine.[3]

Scientific disagreements

Some of Sunil Ahuja's work has been questioned by the scientific community. In July 2008, Ahuja's group reported that the DARC gene influenced HIV/AIDS susceptibility.[6] This finding was then questioned by four other groups of scientists, reporting the failure to replicate.[7][8][9][10] Ahuja's group responded in the same issue of Cell Host & Microbe,[11] and also in a subsequent study published in 2011.[12]

References

1. "Dr. Ahuja, Sunil K, MD". Archived from the original on 2012-09-05. Retrieved 2008-05-07.
2. Gonzalez, Enrique; Kulkarni, Hemant; Bolivar, Hector; Mangano, Andrea; Sanchez, Racquel; Catano, Gabriel; Nibbs, Robert J.; Freedman, Barry I.; Quinones, Marlon P.; Bamshad, Michael J.; Murthy, Krishna K.; Rovin, Brad H.; Bradley, William; Clark, Robert A.; Anderson, Stephanie A.; O'Connell, Robert J.; Agan, Brian K.; Ahuja, Seema S.; Bologna, Rosa; Sen, Luisa; Dolan, Matthew J.; Ahuja, Sunil K. (6 January 2005). "The Influence of CCL3L1 Gene-Containing Segmental Duplications on HIV-1/AIDS Susceptibility". Science. 307 (5714): 1434–1440. Bibcode:2005Sci...307.1434G. doi:10.1126/science.1101160. PMID 15637236. S2CID 8815153.
3. "Sunil K. Ahuja: Texas Monthly February 2008". Archived from the original on 2008-07-04. Retrieved 2008-04-12.
4. "Awards". www.uthscsa.edu. Archived from the original on 17 June 2004. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
5. "News - UT Health Science Center San Antonio - UT Health Science Center News". UT Health Science Center News. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
6. He W, Neil S, Kulkarni H, Wright E, Agan BK, Marconi VC, Dolan MJ, Weiss RA, Ahuja SK (2008). "Duffy Antigen Receptor for Chemokines Mediates trans-Infection of HIV-1 from Red Blood Cells to Target Cells and Affects HIV-AIDS Susceptibility". Cell Host Microbe. 4 (1): 52–62. doi:10.1016/j.chom.2008.06.002. PMC 2562426. PMID 18621010.
7. Walley NM, Julg B, Dickson SP, et al. (2009). "The Duffy Antigen Receptor for Chemokines Null Promoter Variant Does Not Influence HIV-1 Acquisition Or Disease Progression". Cell Host Microbe. 5 (5): 408–410. doi:10.1016/j.chom.2009.04.011. PMC 2720554. PMID 19454339.
8. Winkler CA, An P, Johnson R, Nelson GW, Kirk G (2009). "Expression of Duffy antigen receptor for chemokines (DARC) has no effect on HIV-1 acquisition or progression to AIDS in African Americans". Cell Host Microbe. 5 (5): 411–413. doi:10.1016/j.chom.2009.04.010. PMC 7241868. PMID 19454340.
9. Julg B, Reddy S, van der Stok M, et al. (2009). "Lack of Duffy Antigen Receptor for Chemokines: No Influence on HIV Disease Progression in an African Treatment Naïve Population". Cell Host Microbe. 5 (5): 413–415. doi:10.1016/j.chom.2009.04.009. PMC 2749504. PMID 19454341.
10. Horne KC, Li X, Jacobson LP, et al. (2009). "Duffy antigen polymorphisms do not alter progression of HIV in African Americans in the MACS cohort". Cell Host Microbe. 5 (5): 415–417. doi:10.1016/j.chom.2009.04.013. PMID 19454342.
11. He, Weijing; Marconi, Vincent C.; Castiblanco, John; Kulkarni, Hemant; Clark, Robert A.; Dolan, Matthew J.; Weiss, Robin A.; Ahuja, Sunil K. (2009). "Author reply". Cell Host Microbe. 5 (5): 418–419. doi:10.1016/j.chom.2009.05.007.
12. Ramsuran, V; Kulkarni, H; He, W; Mlisana, K; Wright, EJ; Werner, L; Castiblanco, J; Dhanda, R; Le, T; Dolan, MJ; Guan, W; Weiss, RA; Clark, RA; Karim, SS; Ahuja, SK; Ndung'u, T (May 2011). "Duffy-null-associated low neutrophil counts influence HIV-1 susceptibility in high-risk South African black women". Clinical Infectious Diseases. 52 (10): 1248–56. doi:10.1093/cid/cir119. PMC 3115278. PMID 21507922.

External links

• Faculty profile at UT Health Science Center