Juhi Bagaitkar, PhD

The Bagaitkar laboratory studies the complex interactions between innate immune cells, epithelial cells, and microbial colonizers at mucosal barrier surfaces. Reciprocal and heterogenous interactions between these three entities determine host susceptibility to chronic inflammation, cancers and mucosal infections with bacterial and viral pathogens. The oral mucosal barrier is immunologically complex and serves as a gateway to the respiratory and gastrointestinal mucosal surfaces. It is heavily colonized by a rich and diverse oral microbiome and constantly subject to foreign antigens, allergens and invasion by bacterial and viral pathogens. Thus, the maintenance of immune homeostasis at the oral mucosa is a complex, incompletely understood process. The research projects in the lab are centered around three main areas of focus. 1) Manipulation of host innate immune responses by bacterial and viral pathogens at the oral barrier 2) Regulation of immune effector responses of neutrophil and macrophage 3) Immunodeficiencies that impair neutrophil functional responses and enhance susceptibility to chronic inflammation and autoimmunity (Chronic Granulomatous Disease).

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Juhi Bagaitkar, PhD, is a principal investigator in the Center for Microbe and Immunity Research at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute and an associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University. She is an NIH funded investigator whose research focuses on understanding host-pathogen interactions, and innate immune pathways that regulate tolerogenic immunity at the oral mucosal barrier.