Gurkamal S. Chatta, MD
Dr. Chatta is studying age-related changes in transcription factors in T lymphocytes to better understand the molecular basis of immunosenescence. Studies to date have found that T cell signaling is largely preserved with the aging process, and specific T cell function in the healthy elderly can be unregulated to levels vigorous enough to potentially be invoked for cancer therapy. Currently, his group is working on developing T cell therapy for prostate cancer, one of the most common malignancies in elderly men. The major theory they are developing is that immunological tolerance to self-antigens weakens with age. Thus, it may be feasible to readily develop immunity to prostate tissue in patients with prostate cancer and the immunity to prostate tissue will be able to destroy the cancerous gland. The successful development of T cell therapy also has broader implications for treating other immunodeficient states in the elderly.
Dr. Chatta is currently at the University of Pittsburgh. He received his MD from Delhi University, India and trained in Internal Medicine at the University of Wisconsin Medical School. He completed fellowships in Gerontology and Oncology from the University of Washington, Seattle (Washington).
Brookdale Fellow Class of 1991