Chauhan’s Childhood Curiosity Sparks Successful Career In Research of Fungi
Neeraj Chauhan, Ph.D., has been accustomed to life in a lab since he was a child. Growing up in India, his curiosity was sparked by the opportunity to regularly visit the lab where his father worked as a professor of chemistry. The early exposure to research put him on a continuing scientific path, now as an adult with two college-aged children of his own.
“I was especially fascinated by a giant glass distillation unit to make distilled water. I thought that was the coolest thing in the world,” said Dr. Chauhan. “Looking back, I feel that spending time with my dad and those frequent visits to his laboratory developed my interest and allowed me to pursue a career in research.”
Now that career spanning more than 30 years has landed him a position at Hackensack Meridian Health Center For Discovery and Innovation (CDI). As associate member for the past two years, he continues to focus his research on fungal pathogens of the Candida genus; particularly two leading human pathogens that can cause both mucosal and invasive infections.
“The work of Neeraj Chauhan is a terrific complement to the groundbreaking work we have in fungi across multiple laboratories,” said David Perlin, Ph.D., chief scientific officer and executive vice president of the CDI. “He is a valued colleague.”
The Road To CDI
Although he received his initial education in India, eventually Dr. Chauhan didn’t have to travel far to find his fit at the CDI. His previous role was as a faculty member at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. The move to HMH has been excellent.
“What really drew me to CDI is its focus on translational research and the ability to collaborate with clinician scientists. The quality and breadth of research done at CDI is absolutely amazing,” he said. “Collaborating with colleagues who are experts in various fields, we can do really high impact research. This has allowed me to integrate my background in basic science with clinical research which is quite difficult in a more traditional academic set up.”
Chauhan says his interest in medical mycology (study of fungi) began during his postdoctoral years at Georgetown University. He explains that’s where he learned to appreciate the profound impact fungi have on human health, wanting to answer questions like: what makes this fungus so sticky to human skin? Why does it colonize? What makes it so resistant to drugs? And how can we stop outbreaks in nursing homes and hospitals?
And he says the expertise and research portfolio of fungi at the CDI under the leadership of Dr. Perlin was a huge draw in coming to Nutley.
The Chauhan Lab At CDI
Still a relatively young lab at CDI, the Chauhan Lab is constantly aiming to grow in both numbers and knowledge. Currently, the staff is working to understand the drug resistance mechanisms of fungi as well as how it’s able to colonize human skin, which remains a major risk factor in patient-to-patient transmission.
“Fungal infections account for 2.5 million deaths every year and don’t get the attention they deserve. There are so few antifungal drugs available in the market so that’s also a challenge,” said Chauhan.
That is why one of the main goals of the Chauhan lab is to help develop effective antifungal drugs that can be used to treat these difficult infections.
As this vision grows, Dr. Chauhan hopes to hire new students/postdocs with a lot of enthusiasm, who wish to study host-pathogen interactions using the latest tools and talent available right at the CDI.
“There is no place better to push this work forward - and it is a critical time to do so,” said Chauhan.
There isn’t much free time away from the lab at the moment but in those rare instances, Chauhan enjoys cooking, reading and traveling. He and his wife live in Short Hills, NJ.
His son is a freshman at University of Wisconsin - Madison while his daughter graduated from Rutgers University last year and is currently working in New York City.