Swayam Prakash, PhD

Research Scientist

Cellular and Molecular Immunology Laboratory

Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, School of Medicine

University of California, Irvine, 92697, USA

swayam.immunogenetics@gmail.com

About

Dr.Swayam Prakash has rich expertise in the fields of Genomics & Transcriptomics, Molecular Biology, and Computational Biology. In recent years he has applied his expertise into translational areas like (i) vaccine development and research, and (ii) transplantation immunology. 

Dr.Swayam Prakash has worked during his Ph.D. in the areas of Transplant Immunology and Immunogenetics. He has done his doctoral research at the Department of Medical Genetics, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow. His works emphasized studying the innate immune system and its effect on renal failure. Through his doctoral research, he has studied the molecular profiling of the Killer Immunoglobulin-Like Receptors (KIRs) and HLA Class-I Ligands and correlated the effect of KIR-HLA match/mismatch on renal allograft survival. His works mainly suggest that an element of genetic risk exists that determines the pathogenesis of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and involves the deregulation of natural killer (NK) cells, their activity being inclined towards more of an activating state.

During his first postdoctoral research, he investigated how a better immunity can be provided to patients during post solid organ transplantation environment by understanding the intricacies of the genetic milieu. In his second postdoctoral tenure at the University of California, Irvine; he has worked in the field of viral immunology and vaccine development while working on multiple projects involving COVID-19 and Herpes research. Notably, his current postdoctoral research at the University of California, Irvine is focused on developing a pre-emptive Pan-Corona virus vaccine for past, present, or future variants of SARS-CoV-2.

Over the years he has also developed a keen interest in Epidemiology and is currently involved as a collaborator in several global Public Health Projects under the aegis of the prestigious Global Burden of Disease (GBD) initiative by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Seattle, Washington state. He has worked in the field of public health and epidemiology while studying various aspects of Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology (CKDu) in certain tribal pockets of India.

Highly skilled with multiple platforms/assays associated with high throughput Next-Generation Sequencing, Vaccine research & development, Molecular Biology, Histocompatibility & Cellular Immunology. While being involved in multiple Covid-19 and Herpes-specific vaccine research, he has worked efficiently with (i) handling multiple transgenic animal models (Rabbit, Mice) and (ii) other animal models like Guinea Pigs and Golden Syrian Hamsters in ABSL-3, and ABSL-2 laboratories. Additionally, he has long experience in the fields of bioinformatics and statistical computing.

He has more than 54 research publications to his credit over the last 10 years. These publications over the last 10 years have led to nearly 22,500 citations with an h-index of 21. Based on the number of citations his research work has received, Dr.Swayam Prakash has been recognized by the AD Scientific Index 2023 among the World’s top 2% of scientists (https://www.adscientificindex.com/scientist/swayam-prakash-/4304813).

PRESS

Work experience

Education

Thesis title: Molecular profiling of the killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) and their HLA Class-I ligands and their clinical relevance to the end-stage renal disease