Bernard Khor, MD, PhD
Background Information
Dr. Khor received his bachelor’s degree in Biology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his MD and PhD in Immunology, from Washington University in St. Louis. He did his residency in Clinical Pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship in Transfusion Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Subsequently, he pursued postdoctoral research with Dr. Ramnik Xavier. Dr. Khor joined the BRI as an Assistant Member in 2017.
Area of Research
Dr. Khor’s laboratory is interested in identifying novel pathways that regulate tolerance and inflammation, focusing on those that are disrupted in the setting of human autoimmunity. The current emphasis is on identifying new pathways that regulate Treg differentiation and function. His group has used a small molecule approach to identify several novel enhancers of Treg differentiation and is pursuing mechanistic studies to elucidate new aspects of Treg development and function.
Featured Publications
Khor B. Regulatory T Cells: Central Concepts from Ontogeny to Therapy. Transfus Med Rev. 2016 Jul 26. PMID: 27523957
Khor B, Gagnon JD, Goel G, Roche MI, Conway KL, Tran K, Aldrich LN, Sundberg TB, Paterson AM, Mordecai S, Dombkowski D, Schirmer M, Tan PH, Bhan AK, Roychoudhuri R, Restifo NP, O'Shea JJ, Medoff BD, Shamji AF, Schreiber SL, Sharpe AH, Shaw SY, Xavier RJ. The kinase DYRK1A reciprocally regulates the differentiation of Th17 and regulatory T cells. Elife. 2015 May 22;4. PMID: 25998054; PMC4441007
Sundberg TB, Choi HG, Song JH, Russell CN, Hussain MM, Graham DB, Khor B, Gagnon J, O'Connell DJ, Narayan K, Dančík V, Perez JR, Reinecker HC, Gray NS, Schreiber SL, Xavier RJ, Shamji AF. Small-molecule screening identifies inhibition of salt-inducible kinases as a therapeutic strategy to enhance immunoregulatory functions of dendritic cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Aug 26;111(34):12468-73. PMID: 25114223; PMC4151730
Shaw SY, Tran K, Castoreno AB, Peloquin JM, Lassen KG, Khor B, Aldrich LN, Tan PH, Graham DB, Kuballa P, Goel G, Daly MJ, Shamji AF, Schreiber SL, Xavier RJ. Selective modulation of autophagy, innate immunity, and adaptive immunity by small molecules. ACS Chem Biol. 2013 Dec 20;8(12):2724-33. PMID: 24168452; PMC3951132
Conway KL, Kuballa P, Khor B, Zhang M, Shi HN, Virgin HW, Xavier RJ. ATG5 regulates plasma cell differentiation. Autophagy. 2013 Apr;9(4):528-37. PMID: 23327930; PMC3627668
Khor B, Gardet A, Xavier RJ. Genetics and pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease. Nature. 2011 Jun 15;474(7351):307-17. PMID: 21677747; PMCID: PMC3204665