Mimi Ghosh

Ph.D., M.S.

Associate Professor

School: Milken Institute School of Public Health

Department: Epidemiology

Contact:

Email: Mimi Ghosh

Office Phone: 202-994-5740

Science & Engineering Hall 800 22nd Street, NW Washington DC 20052

I grew up in Kolkata, India, where my parents still live. After high school I received a scholarship to a tiny college in West Virginia, and decided to come and see America. Small town West Virginia was a bit of a culture shock after Kolkata which is a lively, bustling, and extremely crowded city. But I settled there for a few years and completed my BS and MS. Afterwards I attended the University of Pittsburgh, School of Public Health, where I completed my PhD in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology. My focus at the University of Pittsburgh was characterizing the immune responses that occur in the brain shortly after HIV infection. This was the beginning of my interests in the HIV/AIDS field. Right after my PhD, I moved to Lebanon, New Hampshire (a very beautiful but very cold place) as a post-doctoral fellow in Dartmouth Medical School and started working in the area of HIV transmission in women. I have always been interested in women's rights and women's health issues; but it is at Dartmouth where my life-time research interests sharpened into focus as I figured out how I can use my scientific training to help protect women from HIV/AIDS. However, protecting women is so much more than laboratory science. Women in many cultures do not have the right to negotiate condom use with their partners and husbands and desperately need women-controlled methods to protect themselves against HIV and other sexually transmitted pathogens. During my time at GWU, I have also started to work with other high-risk and at-risk groups including transgender women and men. My goal is to utilize my scientific training to help develop such methods that will help and empower vulnerable populations.

When I am not working, I am reading! I am a voracious reader and gobble up just about every topic under the sun. My apartment suffers from a constant overflow of books and many have to be stored in my pantry!

Expertise

HIV/AIDS

Reproductive Health

Immunology

Women's Health

Underserved Populations

Education

Bachelor of Science (Molecular Biology/Biotechnology), Salem-Teikyo University, 1995

Master of Science, (Molecular Biology/Biotechnology), Salem-Teikyo University, 1999 (Currently Salem International University)

Doctor of Philosophy (Infectious Diseases and Microbiology), University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, 2005

Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Dartmouth Medical School, 2005-2011

Teaching

PubH 6278, Public Health Virology
PubH 6291/MICR 8210, Infection and Immunity
PubH 6080, Pathways to Public Health

Community Service

Dr. Ghosh is a member of the American Society for Reproductive Immunology, the International AIDS Society and the International Society of Reproductive Immunology. A committed volunteer, she is the Co-founder and Chief Administrative Officer of International Konditi Development Initiative (I-KODI), a non-profit organization that supports basic educational and health-care needs in an impoverished community in rural Kenya where the prevalence of HIV is particularly high. As a member of the Dartmouth College International Students Program, Ghosh taught basic English, American culture and survival skills to international scholars and spouses in the Upper Valley Region in New Hampshire.

Research

Dr. Ghosh's research interests are broadly focused in the area of reproductive immunology. She studies HIV acquisition/transmission, specifically focusing on the mucosal immune responses and hormonal regulation. She is interested in working with vulnerable populations and currently has projects that involve post-menopausal women, adolescent girls, female sex workers, women who have experienced sexual violence and transgender women and men. Professor Ghosh is specifically interested in the translational public health aspects of HIV/AIDS that can lead to the development of preventative and therapeutic interventions.

Publications

Articles in Refereed Journals (last five years)

*Indicates graduate student
**Indicates undergraduate student

*Capozzi E, Daniels J, *Mohamed H, *Cabezas Mejia F, Sternberg D, Bouey J, Ghosh M. HIV-Associated Genital Immune Biomarkers in the Female Sex Worker Population: A Pilot Study. American Journal of Reproductive Immunology. 2024 Sep;92(3):e13929.
*Holmberg CS, Levinger C, Abongwa M, Ceriani C, Archin N, Li R, Siegel M, Ghosh M, Bosque A. The HIV-1 latency reversal and immune enhancing activity of IL-15 is not influenced by sex hormones. JCI Insight. July 2024.
*Nasr M, Aldous A, Daniels J, *Joy C, *Capozzi E, *Yang M, Moriarty P, Emmanuel-Baker V, Malcolm S, Green S, Gomez-Lobo V, and Ghosh M. Effect of progestin-based contraceptives on HIV-associated vaginal immune biomarkers and microbiome in adolescent girls. Plos One. 2024 Jul 15;19(7):e0306237
Hughes SM, Levy CN, Calienes FL, Martinez KA, Selke S, Tapia K, Chohan BH, Oluoch L, Kiptinness C, Wald A, Ghosh M, Hardy L, Ngure K, Mugo NR, Hladik F, Roxby AC. Starting to have sexual intercourse is associated with increases in cervicovaginal immune mediators in young women: a prospective study and meta-analysis. Elife. 2022 Oct 25
Hughes SM, Levy CN, Katz R, Lokken EM, Anahtar MN, Hall MB, Bradley F, Castle PE, Cortez V, Doncel GF, Fichorova R, Fidel PL Jr, Fowke KR, Francis SC, Ghosh M, Hwang LY, Jais M, Jespers V, Joag V, Kaul R, Kyongo J, Lahey T, Li H, Makinde J, McKinnon LR, Moscicki AB, Novak RM, Patel MV, Sriprasert I, Thurman AR, Yegorov S, Mugo NR, Roxby AC, Micks E, Hladik F. Changes in concentrations of cervicovaginal immune mediators across the menstrual cycle: a systematic review and meta-analysis of individual patient data. BMC Med. 2022 Oct 5;20(1):353.
Daniels J, Aldous A, Pyra M, Xia Y, Juzumaite M, Jais M, Simmens S, Murphy K, Taylor TN, Kassaye S, Benning L, Cohen MH, Weber KM, Ghosh M. Lifetime sexual violence exposure in women compromises systemic innate immune mediators associated with HIV pathogenesis: A cross-sectional analysis. Womens Health. 2022 Jan-Dec;18:17455057221099486.
Sherrill-Mix S, Yang M, Aldrovandi GM, Brenchley JM, Bushman FD, Collman RG, Dandekar S, Klatt NR, Lagenaur LA, Landay AL, Paredes R, Tachedjian G, Turpin JA, Sergio Serrano-Villar, Lozupone C, Ghosh M. A Summary of the Sixth Annual Virology Education HIV Microbiome Workshop. AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses. 2022 Jan 25.
Anderson K, Ghosh M, Karris M, Capozzi E, Granger D, Stockman J. The biobehavioral impacts of sexual violence: Findings from an acute repeat survivor of vaginal rape. Womens Health. 2021 Jan-Dec.
Aldous A, Joy C , Daniels J, , Jais M, Simmens S , Magnus M, Roberts A, Connors K , Mohamed H, Juzumaite M, **Capozzi B, DeVore H, Moriarty T, Hatch Schultz C, Zumer M , Simon G, Ghosh M. Recent Sexual Violence Exposure is Associated with Immune Biomarkers of HIV Susceptibility in Women. American Journal of Reproductive Immunology. 2021 Sep;86(3):e13432.
Rodriguez-Garcia M, Connors K, Ghosh M. HIV Pathogenesis in the Human Female Reproductive Tract. Current HIV/AIDS Reports. 2021 Apr;18(2):139-156.
Anderson S, Thurman A, Chandra N, Jackson S, Asin S, Rollenhagen C, Ghosh M, Daniels J, Vann N, Clark M, Doncel D. Vitamin D Status Impacts Genital Mucosal Immunity and Markers of HIV-1 Susceptibility in Women. Nutrients. 2020 Oct 17;12(10):3176.
Sherrill-Mix S, Connors K, Aldrovandi GM, Brenchley JM, Boucher C, Bushman FD, Collman RG, Dandekar S, Klatt NR, Lagenaur LA, Paredes R, Tachedjian G, Turpin JA, Landay AL, Ghosh M. A Summary of the Fifth Annual Virology Education HIV Microbiome Workshop. AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses. 2020 Nov;36(11):886-895.
Stockman J, Anderson K, Karris M, Benson C, Tsuyuki K, Granger D, Weber A, Ghosh M. The THRIVE Study: Protocol for a longitudinal case-control study on the role of stress and genital immunity in sexual trauma and HIV susceptibility among adolescent girls and adult women. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 2020 Dec 7;9(12):e18190.
Williams B, #Ghosh M, Boucher C, Bushman F, Carrington-Lawrence S, Collman RG, Dandekar S, Dang Q, Malaspina A, Paredes R, Wilson C, Cardoso SP, Lagenaur L, Santos J, Joy C, Landay A. A Summary of the Fourth Annual Virology Education HIV Microbiome Workshop. AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses. 2020 May;36(5):349-356.
#1st co-author.

Leadership Roles

Director - GWU Clinical Trials Unit Laboratory
Co-Leader District of Columbia, Center for AIDS Research
Women and HIV Scientific Interest Group
Co-Director, Masters of Science in Public Health Microbiology and Emerging Infectious Diseases Program (MS PHMEID)