Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, USA
Over the past twenty years, the major focus of Sergey Iordanskiy’s research has been the molecular mechanisms of retroviral replication and various aspects of innate immunity in the context of viral expression and latency. Currently, Dr. Iordanskiy is a faculty member and principal investigator in the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Therapeutics at Uniformed Services University of the Health Science in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at George Washington University in Washington, District of Columbia. While he has worked for many years with HIV, a major interest of his laboratory has recently become the role of endogenous retroviruses (more than 8% of the human genome) in regulating myeloid cell differentiation and the innate immune response to various stressors and infections. Specifically, Iordanskiy’s group in collaboration with colleagues from the National Institutes of Health, elucidated the impact of human endogenous retroviruses on the immune phenotype of macrophages upon the pressure of damage- and pathogen-associated molecular patterns. Particular retroviral loci have been identified as essential modulators of interferon activity and cytokine profiles in health and disease. Another focus of Iordanskiy's research is radiation immunopathogenesis. Previously, he investigated the effect of ionizing radiation on the activation of sense and anti-sense transcription of retroviruses, including HIV-1. His group later identified a dose-dependent switch of signaling pathways mediated by intracellular pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) in response to increasing radiation doses in the context of radiation therapy, radiation-related cell damage, and pro-/anti-tumor differentiation of macrophages. A particular ratio of cytoplasmic nucleic acid substrates determines the activation of PRR signaling pathways (such as MAVS, STING, TLR3/7/8), which are responsible for the pro-inflammatory shift in the phenotype of myeloid cells. Dr. Iordanskiy serves on the scientific review boards and editorial boards of Frontiers in Virology, Open Virology, and Viruses, and is a mentor to graduate students and postdocs.
