Latest News

Wednesday September 04, 2024

Congratulations to Heeva Baharlou
2023 ASI Career Advancement Awardee

We warmly congratulate
Heeva Baharlou
winner of the 2023 Career Advancement Award 

--

I am a medical student and postdoctoral researcher in Andrew Harman’s laboratory at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Sydney, Australia. I completed my PhD at the University of Sydney in 2022 where I developed new methods to spatially map the early events underlying the sexual transmission of HIV.

My focus on systems-based approaches to analysis drew me to using spatial methods to study the biology of HIV infection. Imaging primary human tissue sections provides a snapshot of the real physiology underlying the disease, which can provide a rational basis for therapies or the targeted use of models of disease. As such, during my PhD I approached the question of HIV transmission by developing a pipeline study infection in fresh intact human anogenital tissues. We topically infected and probed fresh tissue samples and performed high parameter microscopy to detect and quantify mucosal HIV-target cell interactions occurring within the first few hours of HIV exposure. This resulted in the first in-situ map of early HIV transmission events in human tissue (DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111385).

I then decided to pursue medical training, as both a career and a complement to my career as a scientist. The combination of skills gained from my PhD, my longstanding interest in HIV infection, and my medical training, all came to together and led to me deciding to visit Professor Douglas Kwon’s lab at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard. I used the Postdoctoral Career Advancement Award to visit Professor Kwon’s lab in Cambridge, USA in January to February of 2024. Professor Kwon is a clinician-scientist running a translational research laboratory and is an expert in mucosal transmission of HIV. Utilising innovative human organoid techniques, Professor Kwon's team has unveiled a novel mechanism underlying gut barrier dysfunction in people living with HIV (PWH). They discovered that colonic CD8+ T cells in PWH downregulate a protein known as PPAR-G, essential for metabolising fatty acids for energy. This disruption in fat metabolism results in lipid depletion from the epithelial layer and subsequent gut barrier dysfunction. To validate these findings in primary human tissues, we collaborated on a project employing advanced imaging techniques to demonstrate the physiological relevance of this discovery. In particular, I optimised a new microscopy staining protocol for multiplexed low abundance metabolite detection. This enabled quantitative comparison of lowly expressed targets such as PPARG in mucosal immune cells. The method was successfully applied to colon tissue sections from PWH, supporting our hypothesis on the role of CD8+ T cell PPARG downregulation in epithelial barrier dysfunction. The insights gained and techniques developed during this project have significantly enhanced our lab's capability to investigate complex cellular interactions in situ.

Perhaps more than the research project itself, the experience gained from immersion in the research environment at the Ragon Institute, alongside neighbouring institutions like The Broad Institute, The Koch Institute, and The Whitehead Institute, exposed me to various research programs and styles of managing interdisciplinary and translational research laboratories. This insight and the development of a substantial network of researchers with similar interests were invaluable.

In future, I hope to return to the US for further training as a Clinician-Scientist. This trip has laid a solid foundation for these future plans. I would like to thank Professor Kwon and the Kwon lab for all their generous support through my stay. Finally, I would like to express my deep gratitude to ASI for the Postdoctoral Career Advancement Award which made this trip possible.

Kwon lab 2024, Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard.  

Author: Heeva Baharlou

Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of ASI