Pradeep Uchil, PhD, has been promoted to Associate Professor Term in the Department of Microbial Pathogenesis at Yale School of Medicine.
Pradeep Uchil received an undergraduate degree in microbiology from Mumbai University and a PhD in molecular virology from the Indian Institute of Science, and he completed his postdoctoral training in retroviral cell biology at Yale University. His lab aims to elucidate how host and viral factors shape antiviral immunity as well as influence viral spread and pathogenesis.
To understand how viruses spread and establish infection in vivo, Uchil developed a bioluminescence imaging (BLI)-based pipeline that allowed visualization of individual steps of retrovirus infection in mice. His studies on early events of MLV and HIV-1 infection also established a crucial role of Siglec-1/CD169 expressed on sentinel macrophages in retroviral infections regardless of the route of infection. He then successfully leveraged his imaging expertise to develop a BLI-guided platform to visualize SARS-CoV-2 infection and spread in real time to study viral pathogenesis and the mechanism of action of neutralizing antibodies (nAb), non-nAbs (nnAb), COVID-19 convalescent plasmas, antiviral drugs, and ACE2-based decoys in various mouse models.
To read more about Dr. Uchil's contributions to science, please also view his full list of publications.