Nazira El-Hage, Ph.D.

Nazira El-Hage is a tenured professor and researcher. Her primary research focuses on the mechanisms regulating the pathology of HIV and associated neurological disorders in the central nervous system and in the context of opioid drug use.

Her lab has a keen interest in the crosstalk between glia-autophagy and the inflammasome signaling platform in response to infectious and age-related neurodegenerative disorders as well as in the potential mechanism of opioid abuse and addiction. Additional projects in her lab are related to the development and delivery of therapeutics targeting neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson’s disease in older adults and Neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis/Batten disease in late infantile and young children.

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 (1995)

Research

• 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