Shervin Takyar MD, PhD

Assistant Professor of Medicine (Pulmonary)

Biographical Info

I did my PhD in microbiology and moleculatr biology in The University of Queensland, Australia. During my PhD I worked and published on a variety of projects including developing new lentiviral vectors for gene delivery, translational regulation in HCV by small RNA-binding molecules and the viral core protein, and RNA-protein interactions in positive strand RNA viruses. During this time I was also involved in cloning the HCV Australian isolate with Dr Eric Gowans. My next stop was a postdoctoral fellowship with Harry Noller at the RNA Center in UCSC where I delved even deeper into the RNA world and studied the helicase activity of the ribosome during translation. Our work was well received and published in Cell. I started my Internal Medicine residency at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo in 2003. During the last year of my residency I took part in a research project led by Dr Sands on the role of TIMP-1 in reactive airway disease. Our work was published in Clinical Immunology. I was then recruited to the Pulmonary Critical Care Fellowship at Yale in 2007, and worked with Dr J Elias to set up a platform for analyzing the role of microRNAs in the lung disease using the transgenic models developed in Dr Elias' lab. I started my work on the lung VEGF transgenic model and within the first year of the project found a microRNA that was regulated by VEGF and mediated the effects of this cytokine in the lung. Based on these and my later findings we filed a patent, and I was awarded a K99/R00 award, one of the most competitive NIH transitional grant in my third year of fellowship. I was directly recruited to the Section of pulmonary and critical care as Assistant Professor at the end of my fellowship. Since starting my tenure track position in 2010 I have been awarded the AAP (American Association of Physicians) Junior Investigator Award for my work on microRNAs in the lung.

Education & Training

M.D.

Iran University of Medical Sciences (1995)

Ph.D.

University of Queensland (2002)

Fellow

Yale University School of Medicine, Pulmonary & Critical Care (2007 - 2010)

Resident

State University of New York - Buffalo, Internal Medicine (2005 - 2006)

Fellow

University of California at San Cruz, Molecular Biology (2001 - 2003)

PG1

University of Queensland, Microbiology (1998 - 2001)

Board Certification

Critical Care Medicine, Internal Medicine, Board Eligible 

Board Certification

Internal Medicine, Board Certified  (2007)

Board Certification

Pulmonary Disease, Board Certified  (2012)

Honors & Recognition

• Fellowship of BBSRC
  Bitechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (2005)
• University of Queensland Graduate School Awards
  University of Queensland (2000)
• Junior Investigator Award
  AAP/ASCI (American Association of Physicians/ American Society of Clinical investigators) (2011)
• University of Queensland Postgraduate Research Scholarship
  University of Queensland (1999)