Behdad Afzali

Ben Afzali studied medicine at the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals, in the United Kingdom, from 1994-2000, qualifying as Valedictorian of his year. Following his primary medical degree, he undertook residency training in internal medicine on the Oxford medical rotation from 2001-2003, during which time he successfully completed the examination requirements for membership of the royal college of physicians. He then commenced fellowship training in renal medicine on the South Thames London rotation, most of which was spent at Guy’s hospital, and was subsequently appointed as an honorary consultant nephrologist at Guy’s. Ben’s research career began during his primary medical studies, which intercalated a Bachelor of Science in Immunology, awarded with first class honors, focused on the role played by adhesion molecules in autoimmunity. He studied for a PhD in immunoregulation with a focus on regulatory T cell (Treg) biology under the supervision of Professors Sir Robert Lechler and Giovanna Lombardi at King’s College London. He was awarded the degree of Philosophical Doctorate in 2009 from the University of London and went on to be appointed as a clinical lecturer. He was the recipient of a Wellcome Trust intermediate Clinical Fellowship to investigate the transcriptional mechanisms by which regulatory T cells produce soluble factors and their impact for cell therapy. As part of this fellowship he was a guest researcher in the laboratory of Dr John O’Shea at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases from 2014 where he examined key transcription factors involved in Treg biology, notably BACH2 and STAT5. He is currently an Earl Stadtman investigator in NIDDK and studies renal immunoregulation, notably how environmental signals in tissues are integrated via networks of transcription factors to direct the basic mechanisms of autoimmunity, subsequent tissue injury and wound healing.