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    Prithu Sundd, PhD (he/him/his)

    Associate Professor of Medicine
    University of Pittsburgh
    Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

    Prithu Sundd, PhD is an Associate Professor of Medicine (Tenured), Associate Professor of Bioengineering and Principal Investigator-Vascular Medicine Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. One of his primary reserach interest is to identify the molecular, cellular and biophysical mechanisms underlying Pulmonary thrombo-inflammation and lung injury in Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). The findings coming out of his lab have significantly contributed to the development of the revolutionary paradigm that ‘Sterile Inflammation’ is a major pathophysiology in SCD and highlighted the potential of anti-inflammatory therapy in SCD. Over the last few years, his lab has identified the role of several innate immune pathways in neutrophils and platelets that contribute to neutrophil-platelet crosstalk, platelet activation, platelet extracellular vesicle release and neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) generation, leading to pulmonary thrombo-inflammation in SCD. To achieve these goals, his lab uses multiscale-integrative-physiological approaches such as intravital microscopy of lung and other organs in transgenic humanized SCD mice, ex vivo microfluidics model to study vaso-occlusion in SCD patient blood, and several high-resolution live cell imaging approaches. His initial work led to the development of the first model of pulmonary thromo-inflammation in transgenic humanized SCD mice and revealed for the first time that lung injury in SCD involves in situ pulmonary arteriole micro-embolism by platelet P-selectin-dependent neutrophil-platelet aggregates. More recently, his research group has extended the knowledge of thrombo-inflammation gained in SCD to understand the pathobiology of other hematological (hemophilia) and infectious (Flu) diseases.

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