Hamid Bassiri, MD, PhD

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Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Consulting Physician, NIH Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN), Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania
Co-Director, Dysregulated Immunity Frontiers Program, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Program Director, Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Department: Pediatrics
Graduate Group Affiliations

Contact information
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
3501 Civic Center Blvd.
Colket Translational Research Bldg, Room 3014
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Office: 267-425-2133
Fax: 215-590-3770
Lab: 267-426-7626
Education:
BA (Biology)
University of Pennsylvania, 1991.
PhD (Immunology)
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 2002.
MD (Medicine)
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 2004.
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Description of Research Expertise

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Our lab investigates two lines of research. The first involves investigating the mechanisms of tumor immune surveillance and ways to harness the activity of innate lymphocytes for cellular cancer immunotherapy. There are currently 3 ongoing projects relevant to this line of investigation: 1) Investigating how to trigger endogenous natural killer T and natural killer cell anti-tumor responses for cellular immunotherapy; 2) Delineating the immunometabolic features of Natural killer T cells; 3) Delineating the neuroblastoma immune microenvironment and how to modulate this for therapeutic purposes. The second line of research involves increasing our understanding of the immune pathogenesis of pediatric hyper-inflammatory syndromes, especially in the context of pediatric SARS-CoV-2 infections.

KEYWORDS:
Natural killer T cells
Tumor microenvironment
Immunometabolism
Cellular immunotherapy
Neuroblastoma
Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis
SARS-CoV-2
COVID-19
Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C)

LAB PERSONNEL:
Priya Khurana (Graduate student)
Kevin McNerney (Clinical fellow in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology)
Chakkapong (Em) Burudpakdee (Research technician)

Description of Clinical Expertise

Pediatric infectious diseases
Care of immunocompromised patients
Care of children with dysregulated immunity
Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH)
Severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C)

Selected Publications

Bassiri H, Das R, Guan P, Barrett DM, Brennan PJ, Banerjee PP, Wiener SJ, Orange JS, Brenner MB, Grupp SA, Nichols KE.: iNKT cell cytotoxic responses control T-lymphoma growth in vitro and in vivo. Cancer Immunology Research 2(1): 59-69, Jan 2014.

Bassiri H, Das R, Nichols KE.: Invariant NKT cells: Killers and conspirators against cancer. OncoImmunology 2(12): e27440, Dec 2013.

Das R, Bassiri H, Guan P, Wiener S, Banerjee PP, Zhong M-C, Veillette A, Orange JS, Nichols KE.: The adaptor molecule SAP plays essential roles during invariant NKT cell cytotoxicity and lytic synapse formation. Blood 121(17): 3386-3395, Apr 2013.

May RM, Okumura M, Hsu C-J, Bassiri H, Yang E, Rak G, Mace EM, Philip NH, Zhang W, Baumgart T, Orange JS, Nichols KE, Kambayashi T.: Murine natural killer immunoreceptors use distinct proximal signaling complexes to direct cell function. Blood 121(16): 3135-3146, Apr 2013.

Cen O, Ueda A, Guzman L, Jain J, Bassiri H, Nichols KE, Stein PL.: The adaptor molecule signaling lymphocytic activation molecule-associated protein (SAP) regulates IFN-gamma and IL-4 production in V alpha 14 transgenic NKT cells via effects on GATA-3 and T-bet expression. Journal of Immunology 182(3): 1370-8, Feb 2009.

Nunez-Cruz S, Yeo WCJ, Rothman J, Ojha P, Bassiri H, Juntilla M, Davidson D, Veillette A, Koretzky GA, Nichols KE.: Differential requirement for the SAP-Fyn interaction during NK T cell development and function. Journal of Immunology 181(4): 2311-20, Aug 2008.

Bassiri H, Janice YWC, Rothman J, Koretzky GA, Nichols KE.: X-linked lymphoproliferative disease (XLP): a model of impaired anti-viral, anti-tumor and humoral immune responses. Immunologic Research 42(1-3): 145-59, Oct 2008.

Bassiri H, Carding SR.: A requirement for IL-2/IL-2 receptor signaling in intrathymic negative selection. Journal of Immunology 166(10): 5945-54, May 2001.

Reya T, Bassiri H, Biancaniello R, Carding SR.: Thymic stromal-cell abnormalities and dysregulated T-cell development in IL-2-deficient mice. Developmental Immunology 5(4): 287-302, Aug 1998 Notes: Shared first authorship.

Contractor NV, Bassiri H, Reya T, Park AY, Baumgart DC, Wasik MA, Emerson SG, Carding SR.: Lymphoid hyperplasia, autoimmunity, and compromised intestinal intraepithelial lymphocyte development in colitis-free gnotobiotic IL-2-deficient mice. Journal of Immunology 160(1): 385-94, Jan 1998 Notes: Shared first authorship.

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Last updated: 03/27/2023
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