Sergio Lira, MD, PhD
img_Sergio Lira
PROFESSOR | Immunology & Immunotherapy
PROFESSOR | Medicine, Clinical Immunology
Research Topics
Autoimmunity, Cancer, Cell Motility, Cellular Immunity, Chemokines, Chemotaxis, Imaging, Immunology, Inflammation, Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), Knockout Mice, Mucosal Immunology, Oncogenes, Organogenesis, Pathology, T Cells, Tolerance, Trafficking, Transgenic Mice, Tumorigenesis, Viruses and Virology
Multi-Disciplinary Training Area
Cancer Biology [CAB], Immunology [IMM]

Professor of Medicine,  Immunology Institute, Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. 

Dr. Sergio Lira received his MD from the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco in Brazil (1982) and his PhD in Physiology and Pharmacology from the University of California at San Diego (1988). He did his postdoctoral training at the Roche Institute for Molecular Biology in Nutley, NJ. After his postdoctoral training he worked for 11 years in the pharmaceutical sector, first at Bristol-Myers Squibb (1992-1996) and then at Schering-Plough (1996-2002). Dr. Lira joined Mount Sinai in 2002 as the Irene Diamond Associate Professor of Immunology. In 2007 he became the co-Director of the Immunology Institute (with Dr. Lloyd Mayer), and in 2013 was promoted to Director, a position he occupied until 2016. He is currently The Leona M. and Harry B. Hemsley Charitable Trust Professor of Immunology. His research focuses on the role of immune cells and the microbiome in mucosal inflammation and cancer. He has organized international meetings in this field, including the 2003 Keystone Symposium on Chemokines, the 2006 Gordon Research Conference on Chemotactic Cytokines, and the 2012 Keystone Symposium on Chemokines and Leukocyte Trafficking. He was elected to the Henry Kunkel Society in 2006 and to the Association of American Physicians in 2008.  He is a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors of NCI (2013-2019).

Research

Specific Clinical/Research Interest: Mucosal Immunology; Microbiota; Cancer; Inflammation; Chemokines; Leukocyte trafficking; Lymphoid Development; Mouse genetics; IL-23 biology

Co-PI: Glaucia Furtado, PhD. Associate Professor

Postdoctoral Fellows: Lili Chen, Zhengziang He, Grace Chen

Visiting Scientist: Valentina Strohmeier (U. Freiburg, Germany)


Summary of Research Studies:
We use genetic approaches in mice to study the function of cytokines and their receptors in mucosal immunology, inflammation and cancer. Recent work in the laboratory focuses:

1) role of microbiome in inflammation in cancer.

2) impact of environmental factors such as diet in inflammation and autoimmunity

3) neonatal inflammation

For more information, please visit the Lira Lab page http://labs.icahn.mssm.edu/liralab/our-research-2/

Technologies
  • Engineering mouse mutants using  the CRISPR/Cas technology
  • Single cell transcriptomics
  • Imaging
  • Intestinal organoids

  • Post-doctoral, Roche Institute of Molecular Biology

    MD, U. Federal de Pernambuco

    PhD, University of California

    Publications

    Selected Publications

    Comprehensive Association Analyses of Extraintestinal Manifestations in Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Michelle Khrom, Millie Long, Shishir Dube, Lori Robbins, Gregory J. Botwin, Shaohong Yang, Emebet Mengesha, Dalin Li, Takeo Naito, Nirupama N. Bonthala, Christina Ha, Gil Melmed, Shervin Rabizadeh, Gaurav Syal, Eric Vasiliauskas, David Ziring, Steven R. Brant, Judy Cho, Richard H. Duerr, John Rioux, Phil Schumm, Mark Silverberg, Ashwin N. Ananthakrishnan, William A. Faubion, Bana Jabri, Sergio A. Lira, Rodney D. Newberry, Robert S. Sandler, Ramnik J. Xavier, Subra Kugathasan, David Hercules, Stephan R. Targan, R. Balfour Sartor, Talin Haritunians, Dermot P.B. McGovern. Gastroenterology

    Circulating senescent myeloid cells infiltrate the brain and cause neurodegeneration in histiocytic disorders. C. Matthias Wilk, Flurin Cathomas, Orsolya Török, Jessica Le Berichel, Matthew D. Park, Camille Bigenwald, George R. Heaton, Pauline Hamon, Leanna Troncoso, Brooks P. Scull, Diana Dangoor, Aymeric Silvin, Ryan Fleischmann, Meriem Belabed, Howard Lin, Elias Merad Taouli, Steffen Boettcher, Long Li, Antonio Aubry, Markus G. Manz, Julia K. Kofler, Zhenyu Yue, Sergio A. Lira, Florent Ginhoux, John F. Crary, Kenneth L. McClain, Jennifer L. Picarsic, Scott J. Russo, Carl E. Allen, Miriam Merad. Immunity

    Monocyte depletion enhances neutrophil influx and proneural to mesenchymal transition in glioblastoma. Zhihong Chen, Nishant Soni, Gonzalo Pinero, Bruno Giotti, Devon J. Eddins, Katherine E. Lindblad, James L. Ross, Montserrat Puigdelloses Vallcorba, Tanvi Joshi, Angelo Angione, Wes Thomason, Aislinn Keane, Nadejda M. Tsankova, David H. Gutmann, Sergio A. Lira, Amaia Lujambio, Eliver E.B. Ghosn, Alexander M. Tsankov, Dolores Hambardzumyan. Nature Communications

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