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Joshua Fierer
Affiliation: UCSD SOM
Chief Infectious Diseases Professor Medicine and Pathology Head Division of Infectious Diseases, UCSD & VA San Diego Healthcare System Director Microbiology Laboratory, VA San Diego Healthcare System
jfierer@ucsd.edu
Phone: 858-552-8585 x7446Biography
Dr. Fierer graduated from NYU School of Medicine and then did a residency in Internal Medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital, sandwiched around a two-year stint in the Epidemic Intelligence Service at CDC. He did his Infectious Diseases Fellowship training with Abraham Braude, first at the University of Pittsburgh and then at UCSD. He joined the faculty at UCSD School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor in 1971 and has remained at UCSD ever since. He is now the Head of Infectious Diseases and a Professor of Medicine and Pathology. He is a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, AAAS, and the American Academy of Microbiology.
Research Summary
The focus of my research is host-pathogen interactions, emphasizing mouse models of Salmonella and Coccidioides immitis. Most recently, my research has focused on the role of innate immunity in resistance to Salmonella infections, and on the genetic basis of resistance to coccidioidomycosis, using murine infections as model systems. I am using recombinant inbred mice to map resistance genes, and knock out mice with specific defects in their innate or acquired immune systems to study the role of specific cytokines in genetic resistance to C. immitis. We are also using mutant non-typhoid Salmonella and knock out mice to understand the interplay between host immunity and bacterial virulence characteristics. We are using C3 deficient mice to determine the role of complement in resistance, and using isogenic strains of Salmonella expressing different LPS structures to determine how the LPS affects the way C3 binds to the bacteria. Mice with mutations in the mannose-receptor are being used to characterize the role of that receptor in resistance to these bacteria, because mannose is a component of the LPS side chains that coat pathogenic Salmonella.
References
©2008 UCSD/Burnham Molecular Pathology Graduate Program