Faculty

Kellie Ann Jurado, PhD

Presidential Assistant Professor

Department: Microbiology

Graduate Group Affiliations

Contact information

3450 Hamilton Walk
Stemmler Hall 474A
Philadelphia, PA 19123

Office: 215-573-6378
Lab: 215-573-7459

Email:
kellie.jurado@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Education:
B.S. (Biology, Microbiology)
New Mexico State University, 2011.
Ph.D. (Medical Sciences)
Harvard University, 2015.

Links
Jurado Lab Website

Permanent link

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Description of Research Expertise

We study early life immunity using emerging viruses. The long-term goal of our research is to uncover basic immunobiological mechanisms that underlie and regulate immune responses in utero through early life. We ask questions about immune system function, kinetics, regulation and development during pregnancy and as a neonate in two distinct contexts: under healthy homeostatic conditions and after inflammatory insults (maternal or paternal-restricted and/or local congenital infection).

We leverage emerging viruses as biological probes to decode early life immunity. Emerging virus pathogenesis, through disruption, can reveal important host immune networks that lead to the discovery of critical host immune functions. Since early immune exposures influence life-long health, deciphering molecular mechanisms associated with fetal immune system development could hold the key for disease intervention even prior to onset. The ultimate objective of our efforts is to describe fundamental immunobiology in order to discover and identify opportunity to improve offspring health outcomes.

Selected Publications

Vazquez C and Jurado KA: Playing Favorites: Integrin αvβ5 Mediates Preferential Zika Infection of Neural Stem Cells. Cell Stem Cell 26(2): 133-135, February 2020.

Orzalli MH, Smith A, Jurado KA, Iwasaki A, Garlick JA, Kagan JC: An antiviral branch of the IL-1 signaling pathway restricts immune-evasion virus replication. Mol. Cell. 71(5): 825-840, September 2018.

Yockey LJ, Jurado KA, Arora N, Millet A, Rakib T, Milano KM, Hastings AK, Fikrig E, Kong Y: Type I interferons instigate fetal demise after Zika virus infection. Science Immunology 3(19): 1680, August 2018.

Jurado KA, Yockey LJ, Wong PW, Lee S, Hutner A, Iwasaki A: Antiviral CD8 T cells underlie Zika virus associated paralysis in mice. Nature Microbiology 3(2): 141-147, February 2018.

Jurado KA and Iwasaki A: Zika virus targets blood monocytes Nature Microbiology 2(11): 1460-1, November 2017.

Zhu S, DDing S, Wang P, Wei Z, Yang Y, Li H, Pan W, Wang G, Lei X, Yu H, Palm NW, Zoete M, Zheng Y, Zhao J, Chen H, Zhao Y, Jurado KA, Feng N, Shan L,, Kulger Y, Lu J, Abraham C, Fikrig E, Greenberg HB, Flavell RA: Nlrp9b inflammasome recognized an restricts rotavirus infection in intestinal epithelial cells. Nature 546(7660): 667-670, June 2017.

Uraki R, Jurado KA, Hwang J, Szigeti-Buck K, Horvath TL, Iwasaki A, Fikrig E.: Fetal growth restriction caused by sexual transmission of Zika virus in mice. J. Infect Dis 215(11): 1720 - 1724, June 2017.

Wang W, Zhou J, Halambage Y, Jurado KA, Jamin A, Wang Y, Engelman A: Inhibition of HIV-1 maturation via small molecule targeting of the amino-terminal domain in the viral capsid protein. J. Virol. 13(91): e02155-16, April 2017.

Uraki R, Hwang J, Jurado KA, Householer S, Yockey L, Hastings A, Homer R, Iwasaki A, Fikrig E: Zika virus causes testicular atrophy. Science Advances 3(2): e1602899, February 2017.

Simoni MK, Jurado KA, Abrahams VM, Fikrig E, Guller S: Zika virus productively infects primary human placenta-specific macrophages. JCI Insight 1(13): e88461, August 2016.