Pratibha Bhalla, Ph.D. Titles and Appointments Instructor School Medical School Department Immunology Biography Pratibha Bhalla, Ph.D., is an Instructor (since January 2024) in the Department of Immunology at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She is a developmental immunologist whose work focuses on understanding the stromal basis of thymic failure in congenital and acquired conditions, and on developing regenerative strategies to rebuild thymic structure and immune function. Dr. Bhalla integrates stromal biology, single-cell genomics, vascular analysis, and organoid engineering to define how mesenchymal, epithelial, and endothelial niches collectively drive thymus development. Her work demonstrated that neural-crest–derived mesenchymal cells are the causal drivers of thymic hypoplasia in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome and that replacing these defective cells can restore normal thymus size and function. She also identified a Sox9⁺ chondrogenic mesenchymal population that further restricts thymic growth in 22q11.2DS, and showed that pharmacologic modulation can suppress these aberrant mesenchymal programs and enhance thymic expansion. Her research additionally extends to FOXN1-associated immunodeficiencies and human thymic tissues. Dr. Bhalla earned her B.S. (Honors) and M.S. in Microbiology from the University of Calcutta, India, followed by a Ph.D. in Chromatin and Transcription Regulation from the CSIR–Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (India). She completed her postdoctoral training in Immunology at UT Southwestern. She has authored many publications, including first-author papers in the Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI), the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI), the Journal of Human Immunity (JHI), Scientific Reports, Gene, and Frontiers in Immunology. She serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Translational Medicine. Her long-term goal is to engineer stromal-competent, regenerable thymus tissues and develop therapeutic strategies that restore immune function in both primary and secondary immunodeficiencies. Research Interest 22q11.2 DS or DiGeorge Syndrome Autoimmunity Thymus Hypoplasia Thymus Regeneration Publications Editorial: The emerging role of endothelial cells in vascular and metabolic disorders; endothelium regeneration and vascular repair is the future for therapeutics Bhalla P, Cleaver O Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology 2024 12 Comprehensive phenotypic analysis of diverse FOXN1 variants Moses A, Bhalla P, Thompson A, Lai L, Coskun FS, Seroogy CM, de la Morena MT, Wysocki CA, van Oers NS Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 2023 Nov 152 1273-1291.e15 Mesenchymal cell replacement corrects thymic hypoplasia in murine models of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome Bhalla P, Du Q, Kumar A, Xing C, Moses A, Dozmorov I, Wysocki CA, Cleaver OB, Pirolli TJ, Markert ML, de la Morena MT, Baldini A, van Oers NS The Journal of clinical investigation 2023 Jul 133 Mesenchymal cell replacement corrects thymic hypoplasia in murine models of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome Bhalla P, Du Q, Kumar A, Xing C, Moses A, Dozmorov I, Wysocki CA, Cleaver OB, Pirolli TJ, Markert ML, De La Morena MT, Baldini A, van Oers NS Journal of Clinical Investigation 2022 Nov 132 Thymus Functionality Needs More Than a Few TECs Bhalla P, Su DM, van Oers NS Frontiers in immunology 2022 Jun 13 Transcription-dependent enrichment of the yeast FACT complex influences nucleosome dynamics on the RNA polymerase III-transcribed genes Shukla A, Bhalla P, Potdar PK, Jampala P, Bhargava P RNA 2021 Mar 27 273-290 Molecular Insights Into the Causes of Human Thymic Hypoplasia With Animal Models Bhalla P, Wysocki CA, van Oers NS Frontiers in immunology 2020 May 11 Yeast PAF1 complex counters the pol III accumulation and replication stress on the tRNA genes Bhalla P, Shukla A, Vernekar DV, Arimbasseri AG, Sandhu KS, Bhargava P Scientific reports 2019 Dec 9 Interactome of the yeast RNA polymerase III transcription machinery constitutes several chromatin modifiers and regulators of the genes transcribed by RNA polymerase II Bhalla P, Vernekar DV, Gilquin B, Couté Y, Bhargava P Gene 2019 Jun 702 205-214 Results 1-9 of 9 1 Professional Associations/Affiliations UT Southwestern Medical Center (2018)
