Nazira El-Hage is a tenured professor and researcher focused on the mechanisms driving HIV-associated neurological disorders in the central nervous system, particularly in the context of opioid use.
The El-Hage Lab investigates the crosstalk between glia-autophagy and the inflammasome signaling platform in response to infectious and age-related neurodegenerative disorders. Additional projects explore the mechanisms of opioid abuse and addiction, as well as the development and delivery of therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease in older adults and neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis/Batten disease in children. El-Hage also studies how neuroimmune signaling in the CNS influences drug misuse and behavior in individuals living with HIV.
Research Interests
- HIV infection and latency in the central nervous system
- Opioids (morphine, fentanyl) drug addiction, interaction and other comorbidities
- Autophagy, inflammasome and neurodegeneration
- Nano-therapeutics and intranasal drug delivery
- Aging, Parkinson’s disease, mitophagy, and mitochondrial dysfunction
See research publications and more on FIU Discovery.
Education
- Ph.D., Microbiology and Immunology, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY, 2002
- M.S., Biological Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 1997
- B.S., Biological Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 199