Salina Gairhe, MS, PhD

PhD, University of South Alabama
MS, Eastern Illinois University
MS, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal

Dr. Gairhe is a Microbiology graduate of Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal, and holds a Master’s degree in Public Health Microbiology from the same institution. With a research focus on Neuroscience, she also earned her Master’s degree in Biological Sciences from Eastern Illinois University. Dr. Gairhe further pursued her academic endeavors and achieved her Ph.D. in Basic Medical Sciences from the Center for Lung Biology and Pharmacology at the University of South Alabama. She continued her research on pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) as a post-doctoral fellow at the same institution.

Dr. Gairhe's notable work includes her investigation of the role of caveolin-1 insufficiency in mediating interferon inflammatory response and dysfunctional endothelial cell phenotype in PAH during her time as an IRTA Postdoctoral Fellow at the Intramural NIH PAH Program. Currently, she serves as a Staff Scientist in Dr. Anthony Suffredini’s lab, where she conducts research on the pathogenesis and resolution of lung injury. Her research focuses on various areas, including studying neutrophil lung transmigration in response to acute lung inflammation, the evolution of lung-specific macrophage responses, noncoding RNAs in acute inflammation, and assessing the metabolomic and proteomic response to lung infection.

Dr. Gairhe is a distinguished member of the editorial board of Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute and Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology. With her extensive research experience, Dr. Gairhe holds a long-standing interest in understanding pulmonary physiology and pathophysiology, mechanism of pulmonary vascular inflammation and remodeling, pulmonary arterial hypertension, and endothelial cell and vascular smooth muscle cell communication. Her research uses advanced techniques, including single-cell RNA sequencing in the bronchoalveolar lavage cells to investigate the cellular microenvironment of the lung in injury and inflammation.

• Pulmonary Hypertension Association Scholar Fellowship, Pulmonary Hypertension Association’s 11th International PH Conference and Scientific Sessions, Indianapolis, Indiana; 2014
• Young Investigator Travelling Grant, Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute, 7th Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute, Annual General Meeting and 6th Scientific Workshops & Debates in Giessen, Germany; 2014
• Young Investigator Travelling Grant, Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute, 6th Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute, Annual General Meeting and 5th Scientific Workshops & Debates in Istanbul, Turkey; 2013
• Pulmonary Hypertension Association Scholar Fellowship, Pulmonary Hypertension Association’s 10th International PH Conference and Scientific Sessions, Orlando, Florida; 2012
• Young Investigator Award, 5th Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute, Annual General Meeting and 4th Scientific Workshops & Debates, Cape Town, South Africa; 2012
• Travel Award, American Thoracic Society International Conference, New Orleans, LA; 2010

Huapaya JA, Higgins J, Kanth S, Demirkale C, Gairhe S, Aboye EA, Regenold D, Sahagun SJ, Pastor G, Swaim D, Dewar R, Rehman T, Highbarger HC, Lallemand P, Laverdure S, Adelsberger J, Rupert A, Li W , Krack J, Teferi G, Kuruppu J , Strich JR, Davey R, Childs R, Chertow D, Kovacs J , Barnett C, Torabi-Parizi P, and Suffredini AF. Vaccination ameliorates cellular inflammatory responses in SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infections. J Infect Dis. 2023 Feb 18:jiad045.

Dougherty E J, Chen L, Awad K, Ferreyra GA, Demirkale CY, Keshavarz A, Gairhe S, Johnston KA, Hicks ME, Sandler AB, Curran CS, Krack JM, Ding Y, Suffredini AF,1 Solomon MA, Elinoff JM, and Danner RL. Inflammation and DKK1-induced AKT activation contribute to endothelial dysfunction following NR2F2 loss. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol. 2023 Apr 11.

Lu M, Chen L, Gairhe S, Mazer A, Anderson S, Nelson J, Noguchi A, Dougherty E, Zou Y, Johnston K, Yu Z, Wang H, Wang S, Sun J, Solomon S, Vanderpool R, Solomon M, Danner R, and Elinoff J. Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist treatment of established pulmonary arterial hypertension improves interventricular dependence in the SU5416- hypoxia rat model. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol. 2022 Mar 1;322(3):L315-L332.

Kanth SM, Gairhe S, Torabi-Parizi P. The Role of semaphorins and their receptors in innate immune responses and clinical diseases of acute inflammation. Front Immunol. 2021 May 3;12:672441.

Gairhe S, Awad KS, Dougherty EJ, Ferreyra GA, Wang S, Yu ZX, Takeda K, Demirkale CY, Torabi-Parizi P, Austin ED, Elinoff JM, Danner RL. Type I interferon activation and endothelial dysfunction in caveolin-1 insufficiency-associated pulmonary arterial hypertension. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 Mar 16;118(11).

Gairhe S, Joshi SR, Bastola MM, McLendon JM, Oka M, Fagan KA, McMurtry IF. Sphingosine-1-phosphate is involved in the occlusive arteriopathy of pulmonary arterial hypertension. Pulm Circ. 2016 Sep;6(3):369-80.

Joshi SR, Dhagia V, Gairhe S, Edwards JG, McMurtry IF, Gupte SA. MicroRNA-140 is elevated and mitofusin-1 is downregulated in the right ventricle of the Sugen5416/hypoxia/normoxia model of pulmonary arterial hypertension. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2016 Sep 1;311(3):H689-98.

Awad KS, Elinoff JM, Wang S, Gairhe S, Ferreyra GA, Cai R, Sun J, Solomon MA, Danner RL. Raf/ERK drives the proliferative and invasive phenotype of BMPR2-silenced pulmonary artery endothelial cells. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol. 2016 Jan 15;310(2):L187-201.

Gairhe S and Safdar Z. Pulmonary hypertension in the developing world. Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute Review Journal. 2015 | January-June | Volume 2 | Issue 1.

Toba M, Alzoubi A, O’Neill K, Gairhe S, Matsumoto Y, Oshima K, Abe K, McMurtry IF, Oka M. Temporal hemodynamic and histological progression in Sugen5416/hypoxia/normoxia-exposed pulmonary arterial hypertensive rats. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 306: H243–H250, 2014.

Visit the National Library of Medicine for a full list of Dr. Gairhe's publications.