Anita A Koshy, MD

Associate Professor, Neurology
Associate Professor, Immunobiology
Associate Professor, BIO5 Institute
Associate Professor, Evelyn F McKnight Brain Institute
Associate Professor, Neuroscience-GIDP
Associate Professor, Medicine

2023 Women In Medicine and Science Awardee

Anita Koshy obtained her medical degree from Duke University, where she was an HHMI Medical Student Fellow for 2 years. After obtaining her MD, she did clinical training in Neurology and Infectious Disease, before joining the lab of John Boothroyd at Stanford University for her postdoctoral training. In the Boothroyd lab, she established an in vivo system for permanently marking and tracking host cells that have interacted with parasite Toxoplasma gondii. 

Research Interests: 

Toxoplasma gondii is an intracellular parasite that is found world-wide and is able to infect most warm blooded animals (from birds to humans). In humans and rodents, Toxoplasma naturally establishes a life-long, asymptomatic infection of the brain. Unfortunately, in those with limited immune response (e.g. fetus, organ transplant patients), this tropism for the brain can lead to devastating effects including seizures, blindness, and death. Thus, our goal is to understand the brain-Toxoplasma interaction at the cellular and molecular level so that we can i) develop curative treatment for symptomatic toxoplasmosis and ii) identify new mechanisms for modulating brain immune responses, which are now thought to play a role in neurologic diseases ranging from Multiple Sclerosis to Alzheimer’s disease.

Degrees
  • BS: Stanford University
  • MD: Duke University
Fellowship
  • Infectious Disease Fellowship: Stanford University, 2005-2010
  • Postdoctoral Fellowship: Stanford University, 2007-2012

Recent Publications

2023

M Licon, H., C. J. Giuliano, A. W. Chan, S. Chakladar, J. N. Eberhard, L. A. Shallberg, S. Chandrasekaran, B. S. Waldman, A. A. Koshy, C. A. Hunter, et al., "A positive feedback loop controls Toxoplasma chronic differentiation.", Nat Microbiol, vol. 8, issue 5, pp. 889-904, 2023 May. PMCID: PMC10520893  PMID: 37081202
Kochanowsky, J. A., S. Chandrasekaran, J. R. Sanchez, K. K. Thomas, and A. A. Koshy, "ROP16-mediated activation of STAT6 enhances cyst development of type III Toxoplasma gondii in neurons.", PLoS Pathog, vol. 19, issue 4, pp. e1011347, 2023 Apr. PMCID: PMC10138205  PMID: 37068104

2020

Chen, L., D. A. Christian, J. A. Kochanowsky, A. T. Phan, J. T. Clark, S. Wang, C. Berry, J. Oh, X. Chen, D. S. Roos, et al., "The Toxoplasma gondii virulence factor ROP16 acts in cis and trans, and suppresses T cell responses.", J Exp Med, vol. 217, issue 3, 2020 Mar 02. PMCID: PMC7062521  PMID: 31961916
McGovern, K. E., C. M. Cabral, H. W. Morrison, and A. A. Koshy, "Aging with Toxoplasma gondii results in pathogen clearance, resolution of inflammation, and minimal consequences to learning and memory.", Sci Rep, vol. 10, issue 1, pp. 7979, 2020 May 14. PMCID: PMC7224383  PMID: 32409672
Patell, R., T. Bogue, P. Bindal, A. Koshy, M. Merrill, W. C. Aird, K. A. Bauer, and J. I. Zwicker, "Incidence of thrombosis and hemorrhage in hospitalized cancer patients with COVID-19.", J Thromb Haemost, 2020 Jul 21. PMCID: PMC7405046  PMID: 32692862
Johnson, H. J., and A. A. Koshy, "Latent Toxoplasmosis Effects on Rodents and Humans: How Much is Real and How Much is Media Hype?", mBio, vol. 11, issue 2, 2020 03 17. PMCID: PMC7078474  PMID: 32184245
Patell, R., A. M. Khan, T. Bogue, M. Merrill, A. Koshy, P. Bindal, R. Joyce, W. C. Aird, D. Neuberg, K. A. Bauer, et al., "Heparin induced thrombocytopenia antibodies in Covid-19.", Am J Hematol, 2020 Jul 13. PMCID: PMC7405086  PMID: 32658337
Merritt, E. F., H. J. Johnson, Z. Sheen Wong, A. S. Buntzman, A. C. Conklin, C. M. Cabral, C. E. Romanoski, J. P. Boyle, and A. A. Koshy, "Transcriptional Profiling Suggests T Cells Cluster around Neurons Injected with Toxoplasma gondii Proteins.", mSphere, vol. 5, issue 5, 2020 Sep 02. PMCID: PMC7471001  PMID: 32878927

2018

Mendez, O. A., C. J. Potter, M. Valdez, T. Bello, T. P. Trouard, and A. A. Koshy, "Semi-automated quantification and neuroanatomical mapping of heterogeneous cell populations.", J Neurosci Methods, vol. 305, pp. 98-104, 2018 Jul 15. PMID: 29782884
Kochanowsky, J. A., and A. A. Koshy, "Toxoplasma gondii.", Curr Biol, vol. 28, issue 14, pp. R770-R771, 2018 Jul 23. PMID: 30040931