College of Veterinary Medicine

Pankaj Baral

Associate Professor
Immunologypankaj baral

Ph.D., Mahidol University, Thailand
Postdoctoral researcher, School of Veterinary Medicine, Louisiana State University
Research Fellow, Department of Immunology, Harvard Medical School

Office: K-224 Mosier Hall
Lab: K-201/K-216 Mosier Hall
Phone: 785-532-5552
Email: baral@vet.k-state.edu

Teaching

  • BIOL 670 Immunology (2021 to 2025)
  • BIOL 671 Immunology Lab (2022)
  • BIOL 840 Molecular and Cellular Immunology (2024)

Research

Our research primarily revolves around neuroimmunology, innate immunity, and host-pathogen interactions. The current research focus of my laboratory is to determine the role of the peripheral nervous system in tissue inflammation and host defense against human and animal pathogens. Respiratory infectious diseases, such as viral pneumonia and drug-resistant Gram-negative pneumonia, are major health problems in humans and animals. The respiratory tract is heavily innervated by sensory and autonomic (sympathetic and parasympathetic) neurons that constantly interact with external and endogenous insults, including pathogens. These neurons crosstalk with the immune and non-immune cells through the neuronal mediators, such as neuropeptides (e.g., calcitonin gene-related peptide; substance P, vasoactive intestinal peptide, etc.) and neurotransmitters (e.g., epinephrine, nor-epinephrine, acetylcholine). The primary goal of our research is to determine how respiratory tract-innervating neurons alter the host defense and immunopathology of lung diseases, including bacterial pneumonia, respiratory viral infection, and chronic lung diseases. Also, our research seeks to understand the cellular and molecular details of neuroimmune crosstalk that could be targeted for therapeutic purposes. Our studies found that lung-innervating sensory neurons inhibit neutrophil and Ly6Chi monocyte responses to promote bacterial pneumonia. We use an extensive multidisciplinary approach, including neuroscience, immunology, microbiology, animal models, single-cell analyses, and cell biology, to pursue many intriguing ideas within these areas.

Selected Publications

Devkota SP, Onah C, Joshi PR, Adhikari S, Baral P. Optimized method for higher yield of alveolar macrophage isolation for ex vivo studies. Heliyon, DOI:10.1016/j.heliyon.e37221, e37221September 15, 2024.

Joshi PR, Adhikari S, Onah C, Camille C, Judd A, Mack M, Baral P, Lung-innervating nociceptor sensory neurons promote pneumonic sepsis during Carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae lung infection, Science Advances, Sep 6;10(36):eadl6162. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adl6162, 2024.

Zhang B, Ma S, Rachmin I, He M, Baral P, Choi S, Goncalves W, Shwartz Y, Fast EV, Su Y, Zon LI, Regev A, Buenrostro JD, Cunha TM, Chiu IM, Fisher DE, Hsu Y. Stress-mediated hyperactivation of sympathetic neurons drives melanocyte stem cell depletion, Nature, 577(7792):676-681, 2020.

Lai NY, Musser MA, Pinho-Ribeiro FA, Baral P, Jacobson A, Ma P, Potts DE, Chen Z, Paik D, Soualhi S, Yan Y, Misra A, Goldstein K, Lagomarsino VN, Nordstrom A, Sivanathan KN, Wallrapp A, Kuchroo VK, Nowarski R, Starnbach MN, Shi H, Surana NK, An D, Wu C, Huh JR, Rao M, Chiu IM. Gut-innervating nociceptor neurons regulate Peyer's patch microfold cells and SFB levels to mediate Salmonella host defense, Cell 180, 33–49, 2020.

Baral P, Udit S, Chiu IM. Pain and immunity: implications for host defence. Nature Reviews Immunology 19(7):433-447, 2019.

Paudel S, Baral P, Ghimire L, Bergeron S, Jin L, DeCorte JA, Le JT, Cai S, Jeyaseelan S. CXCL1 regulates neutrophil homeostasis in pneumonia-derived sepsis caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 3. Blood 133(12):1335-1345, 2019.

Baral P, Umans BD, Li L, Wallrapp A, Bist M, Kirschbaum T, Wei Y, Zhou Y, Kuchroo VK, Burkett PR, Yipp BG, Liberles SD, Chiu IM. Nociceptor sensory neurons suppress neutrophil and γδ T cell responses in bacterial lung infections and lethal pneumonia. Nature Medicine (4):417-426, 2018

Blake KJ, Baral P, Voisin T, Lubkin A, Pinho-Ribeiro FA, Adams KL, Roberson DP, Ma YC, Otto M, Woolf CJ, Torres VJ, Chiu IM. Staphylococcus aureus produces pain through pore-forming toxins and neuronal TRPV1 that is silenced by QX-314. Nature Communications 9(1):37, 2018

Baral P, Mills K, Pinho-Ribeiro FA, Chiu IM. Pain and Itch: Beneficial or Harmful to Antimicrobial Defense? Cell Host Microbe, 19(6):755-9, 2016.

Baral P, Batra S, Zemans RL, Downey GP, Jeyaseelan S. Divergent functions of Toll-like receptors during bacterial lung infections. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 190(7):722-32, 2014.

Baral P, Utaisincharoen P. Sterile α and armadillo motif containing protein inhibits the TRIF-dependent downregulation of signal regulatory protein α to interfere with intracellular bacterial elimination in Burkholderia pseudomallei-infected mouse macrophages. Infection and Immunity 81(9):3463M71, 2013