My research focuses on atopic dermatitis (AD), AD infection and therapeutic interventions to curtail AD infection. I became interested in this area of study as skin has always fascinated me. It's the body's largest organ and provides the first line of defense to protect the body. I have been fortunate enough to study various aspects of insults that occur to the skin and to determine how skin function can be restored.

Imbalance in the microbial community is reported in chronic inflammatory diseases such as AD. Staphylococcus (S.) aureus plays a critical role in the progression and development of AD. For many years, significant research efforts have been directed at studying S. aureus infection in lesional skin of AD. Our interest is to identify the association between S. aureus and skin barrier protein filaggrin, particularly in non-lesional skin. Our lab's goal is to determine how S. aureus infection can be curtailed in non-lesional AD skin.

Dr. Khurana Hershey’s lab has assembled the first US-based early life cohort, Mechanisms of Progression from AD to Asthma in Children (MPAACH), with over 650 children with AD. The S. aureus strains isolated from the lesional and non-lesional skin of patients from MPAACH study will be utilized to perform various genetic and molecular studies to determine the common virulent genes between the strains. Our lab's long-term goal is to develop small-molecule pharmaceutical inhibitors to prevent S. aureus infection in the non-lesioned skin so progression to lesional skin can be prevented.

Some of our lab's groundbreaking discoveries include:

• Identification of a topical bactericidal gel formulation, AB569, in killing gram-negative organism pseudomonas aeruginosa in burn wound infection. A non-provisional patent has been submitted on this research finding. The link to the article is: Infect Immun. 2021 Oct 15;89(11):e0033621. doi: 10.1128/IAI.00336-21. Epub 2021 Aug 16.
• We have also shown that a small molecule, pirfenidone, can serve as an injectable to limit the progression of fibrotic disease, Dupuytren's disease, which affects the palmar fascia of the hand.

I am honored to have received several awards, including:

• First place for paper presented at the 13th Annual Pathology Research Day Symposium, University of Pittsburgh (2002)
• Third place for paper presented at the 14th Annual Pathology Research Day Symposium, University of Pittsburgh (2003)
• Awarded Pathology Post-Doctoral Travel Grant, University of Pittsburgh (2003)
• Best Paper Award for a paper presented at the 51st Annual Meeting of the Plastic Surgery Research Council, Dana Point, CA (2006)
• Honorable mention for poster presented at Discovery Day, Drexel University College of Medicine Philadelphia, PA (2007)
• Third place for poster presented at Discovery Day, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA (2008)
• Novera Pharmaceuticals Junior Faculty Travel Award presented at the 20th Annual Wound Healing Society Meeting, Orlando, FL (2010)
Best Paper Award- Plastic Surgery Resident Research Day, Pittsburgh, PA (2012)
• The International Dupuytren Best Paper Award in the category of basic research (2016)
• American Burn Association Annual Meeting, Poster presentation - Best in Category. Awarded second best poster, Las Vegas, NV (2019)

I have more than 20 years of research experience in various studies related to skin and joined the Cincinnati Children's research team in 2021.