Scientists / Our Scientists

Sharookh B Kapadia

Distinguished Scientist and Director, Infectious Diseases, Research Biology

Postdoc Mentor

"There is no better place than Genentech where collaborating with colleagues to develop innovative therapeutics for patients is so inspiring and fun."

Years at Genentech

Publications at Genentech

Awards & Honors

I joined the Department of Infectious Diseases at Genentech as a Scientist in 2007. During my Ph.D. and postdoctoral fellowships, I focused on better understanding immune-viral interactions using gamma-herpesviruses and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) model systems. Since joining Genentech in 2007, I have spearheaded and been part of several terrific protect teams focused on host targets and viral/bacterial pathogens. Over the last few years, we have focused on better understanding the complex host-microbe interactions and heterogeneity seen in inflammatory diseases like COPD and viral/bacterial pneumonia to identify novel host therapeutic targets.

What initially attracted me to Genentech and still keeps me engaged is the unrelenting, collaborative, and unselfish nature of the scientists with whom I have the privilege of working every day. Genentech offers a solid research infrastructure and a commitment to rigorous science that continues to push me to uncover transformative biology, potentially leading to better and safer therapies for patients with unmet medical needs.

Postdoctoral Mentor

I have been very fortunate to have been trained by outstanding scientists and mentors during my undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral research. These experiences have made me truly appreciate the value of a good mentor and how junior scientists and researchers benefit from an encouraging, trustworthy and empathetic mentor as they embark on their independent research careers. Mentoring postdoctoral researchers is a very humbling and rewarding experience for me and I hope to transfer some of the knowledge and experiences I've gained as a trainee to the next generation of scientists and drug discoverers.

Featured Publication

Deletion of the novel lipoprotein lirL confers resistance to an inhibitor of type II signal peptidase in Acinetobacter baumannii.

2022 PNAS (in press)

Ke-Jung Huang, Homer Pantua, Jingyu Diao, Elizabeth Skippington, Michael Volny, Wendy Sandoval, Varnesh Tiku, Yutian Peng, Meredith Sagolla, Donghong Yan, Jing Kang, Anand Kumar Katakam, Nairie Michaelian, Mike Reichelt, Man Wah Tan, Cary D. Austin, Min Xu, Emily Hanan and Sharookh B. Kapadia

Our goal in the Department of Infectious Diseases is to use cutting edge research tools to uncover novel biologies that can be used to discover transformative therapies for patients with unmet Infectious Diseases. My groups current research focus is to better understand the heterogeneity seen in Acute Respiratory Distress syndrome (ARDS), sepsis and viral/bacterial pneumoniae and develop new preclinical research programs that will lead to innovative therapeutic targets. We believe these efforts will allow us to uncover novel host-directed therapeutic targets to combine with direct-acting antivirals or antibacterials.

Systemic cytokines drive conserved severity-associated myeloid responses across bacterial and viral infections

Communications Biology,

Kimberly K. Kajihara; Donghong Yan; Gretchen L. Seim; Hannah Little-Hooy; Jing Kang; Cynthia Chen; Marco De Simone; Tim Delemarre; Spyros Darmanis; Haridha Shivram; Rebecca N. Bauer; Carrie M. Rosenberger; Sharookh B. Kapadia; Min Xu; Miguel Reyes

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Sharookh B Kapadia

Distinguished Scientist and Director, Infectious Diseases, Research Biology

Featured Publication

Deletion of the novel lipoprotein lirL confers resistance to an inhibitor of type II signal peptidase in Acinetobacter baumannii.