Prithvi Raj, Ph.D. Titles and Appointments Associate Professor School Medical School Department Immunology Biography Dr. Raj is an expert in genetics and genomics. His Ph.D. thesis work was focused on genetic analysis of host and pathogen in pulmonary tuberculosis patients from tribal groups of Madhya Pradesh, India. During his postdoctoral training in Wakeland laboratory in the department of immunology at UT Southwestern Medical center, he investigated genetic basis of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). Using targeted genome sequencing approach, he made an important discovery demonstrating abundance of SLE associated noncoding, regulatory variations at HLA locus that impact transcription of several key genes of immune system that activate antigen presentation pathway to potentiate autoimmunity in individuals with risk genotype. In 2018, Dr. Raj, joined the faculty of Immunology at UT Southwestern Medical Center as the Founder Director of Microbiome Research Laboratory (MRL). MRL provides cutting edge facilities to investigate and characterize communities of microorganisms sampled from variety of sources. Dr. Raj and his team at MRL provide multiomics services to the UT Southwestern research community. These include microbial DNA and RNA sequencing, single cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics services to basic and translational investigators. Raj Lab investigates genetic predisposition and immune responses in septic and autoimmune arthritis in Children. Raj Lab is working on developing innovative sequencing based assays for rapid detection and comprehensive characterization of commensal and pathogenic microbial communities in relation to human health and disease. Research Interest Immune system and host genetics Microbial genomics Microbiome in health and disease Next generation sequencing Publications Featured Publications Genetic haplotypes in VWA8, OSBPL6, and ADAMTS9-AS2 are associated with immune-related adverse effects in ICI-treated patients with cancer. Raj P, Liu J, Zhu C, Arana C, J Fattah F, Mu-Mosley H, Switzer B, Park JY, S von Itzstein M, Wakeland EK, Puzanov I, Zakharia Y, Daniels GA, Shaheen MF, Xie Y, SoRelle JA, Gerber DE, J Immunother Cancer 2025 Oct 13 10 Profiling antigen-binding affinity of B cell repertoires in tumors by deep learning predicts immune-checkpoint inhibitor treatment outcomes. Song B, Wang K, Na S, Yao J, Fattah FJ, Martin AL, von Itzstein MS, Yang DM, Liu J, Xue Y, Liang C, Guo Y, Raman I, Zhu C, Dowell JE, Homsi J, Rashdan S, Yang S, Gwin ME, Wu T, Hsiehchen D, Gloria-McCutchen Y, Lu CP, Raj P, Bai XC, Wang J, Conejo-Garcia J, Xie Y, Huang J, Gerber DE, Wang T, Nat Cancer 2025 Jun Joint fluid multi-omics improves diagnostic confidence during evaluation of children with presumed septic arthritis. Peña-López Y, Tareen NG, Zhang B, Raman I, Arana CA, Zhu C, Liu Y, Selvakumar P, van Oers NSC, Morris S, Hooper LV, Copley LAB, Raj P, Pediatr Rheumatol Online J 2025 Jan 23 1 9 Phase 3 validation of PAaM for hepatocellular carcinoma risk stratification in cirrhosis. Fujiwara N, Lopez C, Marsh TL, Raman I, Marquez CA, Paul S, Mishra SK, Kubota N, Katz C, Kanzaki H, Gonzalez M, Quirk L, Deodhar S, Selvakumar P, Raj P, Parikh ND, Roberts LR, Schwartz ME, Nguyen MH, Befeler AS, Page-Lester S, Srivastava S, Feng Z, Reddy KR, Khaderi S, Asrani SK, Kanwal F, El-Serag HB, Marrero JA, Singal AG, Hoshida Y, Gastroenterology 2024 Nov Lupus IgA1 autoantibodies synergize with IgG to enhance plasmacytoid dendritic cell responses to RNA-containing immune complexes. Waterman HR, Dufort MJ, Posso SE, Ni M, Li LZ, Zhu C, Raj P, Smith KD, Buckner JH, Hamerman JA, Sci Transl Med 2024 Jul 16 754 eadl3848 A telomere-targeting drug depletes cancer initiating cells and promotes anti-tumor immunity in small cell lung cancer. Eglenen-Polat B, Kowash RR, Huang HC, Siteni S, Zhu M, Chen K, Bender ME, Mender I, Stastny V, Drapkin BJ, Raj P, Minna JD, Xu L, Shay JW, Akbay EA, Nat Commun 2024 Jan 15 1 672 Lupus IgA1 autoantibodies synergize with IgG to enhance plasmacytoid dendritic cell responses to RNA-containing immune complexes. Waterman HR, Dufort MJ, Posso SE, Ni M, Li LZ, Zhu C, Raj P, Buckner JH, Hamerman JA, bioRxiv 2023 Sep The gut microbiota reprograms intestinal lipid metabolism through long noncoding RNA Snhg9. Wang Y, Wang M, Chen J, Li Y, Kuang Z, Dende C, Raj P, Quinn G, Hu Z, Srinivasan T, Hassell B, Ruhn KA, Behrendt CL, Liang T, Dou X, Song Z, Hooper LV, Science 2023 Aug 381 6660 851-857 Macrophages regulate gastrointestinal motility through complement component 1q. Pendse M, De Selle H, Vo N, Quinn G, Dende C, Li Y, Salinas CN, Srinivasan T, Propheter DC, Crofts AA, Koo E, Hassell B, Ruhn KA, Raj P, Obata Y, Hooper LV, Elife 2023 Apr 12 Loss-of-function variants in SAT1 cause X-linked childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus. Xu L, Zhao J, Sun Q, Xu X, Wang L, Liu T, Wu Y, Zhu J, Geng L, Deng Y, Awgulewitsch A, Kamen DL, Oates JC, Raj P, Wakeland EK, Scofield RH, Guthridge JM, James JA, Hahn BH, McCurdy DK, Wang F, Zhang M, Tan W, Gilkeson GS, Tsao BP, Ann Rheum Dis 2022 Aug Results 1-10 of 43 1 2 3 4 5 Next Last Books Featured Books Genetic diversity in Indian populations: Implications for genetic susceptibility and mapping of complex genetic diseases. In Recent Trends in Biotechnology Raj P. & P K Tiwari. (2010). New York, ) NOVA publisher, New York Honors & Awards Outstanding paper award for Staphylococcus aureus genome study in childrenPediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America & European Pediatric Orthopaedic Society, USA (2017-2017) Best Poster awardImmunology symposium, Department of Immunology symposium UTSW, Dallas, Texas, USA (2012) Young Scientist AwardMadhya Pradesh Council of Science & Technology (MPCST), India (2009) Best Poster awardInternational conference of Medical and Community Genetics at Department of Hematology, India (2008) Travel award from CSIR and DBT, India57th Annual Meeting of American Society of Human Genetics (2007) University Topper Research Scholarship, University Grant Commission (UGC)Jiwaji University, Gwalior, M. P. India (2004-2006) Professional Associations/Affiliations American Association of Immunologists (AAI) (2013) American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) (2007) Indian Society of Human Genetics (ISHG) (2006)
