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Milken Institute School of Public Health

 

Mimi Ghosh

Mimi Ghosh

Mimi Ghosh

M.S., Ph.D.

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: 

Co-Director, Masters of Science in Public Health Microbiology and Emerging Infectious Diseases Program (MS PHMEID)

PubH 6278 Public Health Virology (Course Director)

MICR 8210 Infection and Immunity (Course Co-Director)

 

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: 

Publications (Last 5 years)

  1. Ghosh M. Lifetime sexual violence exposure in women compromises systemic innate immune mediators associated with HIV pathogenesis: A cross-sectional analysis. Women's Health. 2022 May; 18.

  2. Anderson KM, Tsuyuki K, Fernandez DeSoto A, Stockman JK. The Effect of Adverse Mental Health and Resilience on Perceived Stress by Sexual Violence History. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Apr 15;19(8). doi: 10.3390/ijerph19084796. PubMed PMID: 35457663; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9029884.

  3. Aldous AM, Joy C, Daniels J, Jais M, Simmens SJ, Magnus M, Roberts A, Connors K, Capozzi B, Mohamed H, Juzumaite M, 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. Am J Reprod Immunol. 2021 Sep;86(3):e13432. doi: 10.1111/aji.13432. Epub 2021 May 10. PubMed PMID: 33894020.

  4. Rodriguez-Garcia M, Connors K, Ghosh M. HIV Pathogenesis in the Human Female Reproductive Tract. Curr HIV/AIDS Rep. 2021 Apr;18(2):139-156. doi: 10.1007/s11904-021-00546-1. Epub 2021 Mar 15. Review. PubMed PMID: 33721260; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9273024.

  5. Anderson KM, Ghosh M, Karris MY, Capozzi E, Granger DA, Stockman JK. The biobehavioral impacts of sexual violence: Findings from an acute repeat survivor of vaginal rape. Womens Health (Lond). 2021 Jan-Dec;17:17455065211031079. doi: 10.1177/17455065211031079. PubMed PMID: 34253106; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8280840.

  6. Stockman JK, Anderson KM, Karris MY, Benson CA, Tsuyuki K, Granger DA, Weber A, Ghosh M. The Role of Stress and Genital Immunity in Sexual Trauma and HIV Susceptibility Among Adolescent Girls and Adult Women (The THRIVE Study): Protocol for a Longitudinal Case-Control Study. JMIR Res Protoc. 2020 Dec 7;9(12):e18190. doi: 10.2196/18190. PubMed PMID: 32903198; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7752525.

  7. 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. doi: 10.1089/AID.2020.0121. Epub 2020 Sep 7. PubMed PMID: 32777940; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7869876.

  8. Anderson SM, Thurman AR, Chandra N, Jackson SS, Asin S, Rollenhagen C, Ghosh M, Daniels J, Vann NC, Clark MR, Doncel GF. Vitamin D Status Impacts Genital Mucosal Immunity and Markers of HIV-1 Susceptibility in Women. Nutrients. 2020 Oct 17;12(10). doi: 10.3390/nu12103176. PubMed PMID: 33080839; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7602985.

  9. 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. doi: 10.1089/AID.2019.0197. Epub 2020 Mar 9. PubMed PMID: 31914785; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7360108.

  10. Ghosh M, Jais M, Delisle J, Younes N, Benyeogor I, Biswas R, Mohamed H, Daniels J, Wang C, Young M, Kassaye S. Dysregulation in Genital Tract Soluble Immune Mediators in Postmenopausal Women Is Distinct by HIV Status. AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses. 2019 Mar;35(3):251-259. doi: 10.1089/AID.2018.0234. Epub 2019 Feb 4. PubMed PMID: 30618272; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6909396.

  11. Ghosh M, Daniels J, Pyra M, Juzumaite M, Jais M, Murphy K, Taylor TN, Kassaye S, Benning L, Cohen M, Weber K. Impact of chronic sexual abuse and depression on inflammation and wound healing in the female reproductive tract of HIV-uninfected and HIV-infected women. PLoS One. 2018;13(6):e0198412. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0198412. eCollection 2018. PubMed PMID: 29894487; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5997353.

  12. Ghosh M, Jais M, Biswas R, Jarin J, Daniels J, Joy C, Juzumaite M, Emmanuel V, Gomez-Lobo V. Immune biomarkers and anti-HIV activity in the reproductive tract of sexually active and sexually inactive adolescent girls. Am J Reprod Immunol. 2018 Jun;79(6):e12846. doi: 10.1111/aji.12846. Epub 2018 Mar 13. PubMed PMID: 29533494; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5948140.

  13. Williams B, Ghosh M, Boucher CAB, Bushman F, Carrington-Lawrence S, Collman RG, Dandekar S, Dang Q, Malaspina A, Paredes R, Wilson CC, Nowak P, Klatt NR, Lagenaur L, Landay AL. A Summary of the Second Annual HIV Microbiome Workshop. AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses. 2017 Dec;33(12):1258-1264. doi: 10.1089/aid.2017.0137. Epub 2017 Oct 26. PubMed PMID: 28899105; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5770117.

  14. Aldous A, Magnus M, Roberts A, DeVore H, Moriarty T, Hatch Schultz C, Zumer M, Simon G, Ghosh M. Challenges in conducting research on sexual violence and HIV and approaches to overcome them. Am J Reprod Immunol. 2017 Jul;78(1). doi: 10.1111/aji.12699. Epub 2017 May 3. Review. PubMed PMID: 28467001; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5485823.

  15. Jais M, Younes N, Chapman S, Cu-Uvin S, Ghosh M. Reduced Levels and Bioactivity of Endogenous Protease Cathepsin D in Genital Tract Secretions of Postmenopausal Women. AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses. 2017 May;33(5):407-409. doi: 10.1089/AID.2016.0240. Epub 2017 Jan 27. PubMed PMID: 27903071; Pu