Arjun Rustagi, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor
Medicine
[email protected]
+1 415 221-4810 ext. 23112

Dr. Arjun Rustagi is dedicated to understanding the early immune responses to infections, and the methods pathogens use to persist despite these responses, in order to inform new prevention and treatment strategies. His research has focused on viral pathogenesis and immunity. He set up the respiratory viral biosafety level 3 (BSL3) program at Stanford in early 2020 in order to study SARS-CoV-2, contributing to several projects in SARS-CoV-2 virology including a study of intact in vitro lung tissue infection. He also protocoled the first peripheral immune profiling study of severe COVID-19. His ongoing interest is in the full spectrum of in vitro respiratory pathogen models, particularly those that recapitulate lung epithelium and mucosal immunity.

Publications: 

Vaccine-Boosted CCP Decreases Virus Replication and Hastens Resolution of Infection Despite Transiently Enhancing Disease in SARS-CoV-2-Infected Hamsters.

The Journal of infectious diseases

Carroll TD, Wong T, Morris MK, Di Germanio C, Ma ZM, Stone M, Ball E, Fritts L, Rustagi A, Simmons G, Busch M, Miller CJ

Interstitial macrophages are a focus of viral takeover and inflammation in COVID-19 initiation in human lung.

The Journal of experimental medicine

Wu TT, Travaglini KJ, Rustagi A, Xu D, Zhang Y, Andronov L, Jang S, Gillich A, Dehghannasiri R, Martínez-Colón GJ, Beck A, Liu DD, Wilk AJ, Morri M, Trope WL, Bierman R, Weissman IL, Shrager JB, Quake SR, Kuo CS, Salzman J, Moerner WE, Kim PS, Blish CA, Krasnow MA

An orally bioavailable SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitor exhibits improved affinity and reduced sensitivity to mutations.

Science translational medicine

Westberg M, Su Y, Zou X, Huang P, Rustagi A, Garhyan J, Patel PB, Fernandez D, Wu Y, Hao C, Lo CW, Karim M, Ning L, Beck A, Saenkham-Huntsinger P, Tat V, Drelich A, Peng BH, Einav S, Tseng CK, Blish C, Lin MZ

Organoid modeling of lung-resident immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Research square

Choi SS, van Unen V, Zhang H, Rustagi A, Alwahabi SA, Santos AJM, Chan JE, Lam B, Solis D, Mah J, Röltgen K, Trope W, Guh-Siesel A, Lin Z, Beck A, Edwards C, Mallajosyula V, Martin BA, Dunn JCY, Shrager J, Baric RA, Pinsky B, Boyd SD, Blish CA, Davis MM, Kuo CJ

Viral immunity: Basic mechanisms and therapeutic applications-a Keystone Symposia report.

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Cable J, Balachandran S, Daley-Bauer LP, Rustagi A, Antony F, Frere JJ, Strampe J, Kedzierska K, Cannon JL, McGargill MA, Weiskopf D, Mettelman RC, Niessl J, Thomas PG, Briney B, Valkenburg SA, Bloom JD, Bjorkman PJ, Iketani S, Rappazzo CG, Crooks CM, Crofts KF, Pöhlmann S, Krammer F, Sant AJ, Nabel GJ, Schultz-Cherry S

SARS-CoV-2 escapes direct NK cell killing through Nsp1-mediated downregulation of ligands for NKG2D.

Cell reports

Lee MJ, Leong MW, Rustagi A, Beck A, Zeng L, Holmes S, Qi LS, Blish CA

SARS-CoV-2 infection drives an inflammatory response in human adipose tissue through infection of adipocytes and macrophages.

Science translational medicine

Martínez-Colón GJ, Ratnasiri K, Chen H, Jiang S, Zanley E, Rustagi A, Verma R, Chen H, Andrews JR, Mertz KD, Tzankov A, Azagury D, Boyd J, Nolan GP, Schürch CM, Matter MS, Blish CA, McLaughlin TL

Using a 29-mRNA Host Response Classifier To Detect Bacterial Coinfections and Predict Outcomes in COVID-19 Patients Presenting to the Emergency Department.

Microbiology spectrum

Ram-Mohan N, Rogers AJ, Blish CA, Nadeau KC, Zudock EJ, Kim D, Quinn JV, Sun L, Liesenfeld O, Stanford COVID-19 Biobank Study Group, Yang S

The human disease gene LYSET is essential for lysosomal enzyme transport and viral infection.

Science (New York, N.Y.)

Richards CM, Jabs S, Qiao W, Varanese LD, Schweizer M, Mosen PR, Riley NM, Klüssendorf M, Zengel JR, Flynn RA, Rustagi A, Widen JC, Peters CE, Ooi YS, Xie X, Shi PY, Bartenschlager R, Puschnik AS, Bogyo M, Bertozzi CR, Blish CA, Winter D, Nagamine CM, Braulke T, Carette JE

Programmable antivirals targeting critical conserved viral RNA secondary structures from influenza A virus and SARS-CoV-2.

Nature medicine

Hagey RJ, Elazar M, Pham EA, Tian S, Ben-Avi L, Bernardin-Souibgui C, Yee MF, Moreira FR, Rabinovitch MV, Meganck RM, Fram B, Beck A, Gibson SA, Lam G, Devera J, Kladwang W, Nguyen K, Xiong A, Schaffert S, Avisar T, Liu P, Rustagi A, Fichtenbaum CJ, Pang PS, Khatri P, Tseng CT, Taubenberger JK, Blish CA, Hurst BL, Sheahan TP, Das R, Glenn JS

An intranasal ASO therapeutic targeting SARS-CoV-2.

Nature communications

Zhu C, Lee JY, Woo JZ, Xu L, Nguyenla X, Yamashiro LH, Ji F, Biering SB, Van Dis E, Gonzalez F, Fox D, Wehri E, Rustagi A, Pinsky BA, Schaletzky J, Blish CA, Chiu C, Harris E, Sadreyev RI, Stanley S, Kauppinen S, Rouskin S, Näär AM

Genome-wide bidirectional CRISPR screens identify mucins as host factors modulating SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Nature genetics

Biering SB, Sarnik SA, Wang E, Zengel JR, Leist SR, Schäfer A, Sathyan V, Hawkins P, Okuda K, Tau C, Jangid AR, Duffy CV, Wei J, Gilmore RC, Alfajaro MM, Strine MS, Nguyenla X, Van Dis E, Catamura C, Yamashiro LH, Belk JA, Begeman A, Stark JC, Shon DJ, Fox DM, Ezzatpour S, Huang E, Olegario N, Rustagi A, Volmer AS, Livraghi-Butrico A, Wehri E, Behringer RR, Cheon DJ, Schaletzky J, Aguilar HC, Puschnik AS, Button B, Pinsky BA, Blish CA, Baric RS, O'Neal WK, Bertozzi CR, Wilen CB, Boucher RC, Carette JE, Stanley SA, Harris E, Konermann S, Hsu PD

Anti-nucleocapsid antibody levels and pulmonary comorbid conditions are linked to post-COVID-19 syndrome.

JCI insight

Jia X, Cao S, Lee AS, Manohar M, Sindher SB, Ahuja N, Artandi M, Blish CA, Blomkalns AL, Chang I, Collins WJ, Desai M, Din HN, Do E, Fernandes A, Geng LN, Rosenberg-Hasson Y, Mahoney MR, Glascock AL, Chan LY, Fong SY, CLIAHUB Consortium, Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, Phelps M, Raeber O, Stanford COVID-19 Biobank Study Group, Purington N, Röltgen K, Rogers AJ, Snow T, Wang TT, Solis D, Vaughan L, Verghese M, Maecker H, Wittman R, Puri R, Kistler A, Yang S, Boyd SD, Pinsky BA, Chinthrajah S, Nadeau KC

Biochemical, biophysical, and immunological characterization of respiratory secretions in severe SARS-CoV-2 infections.

JCI insight

Kratochvil MJ, Kaber G, Demirdjian S, Cai PC, Burgener EB, Nagy N, Barlow GL, Popescu M, Nicolls MR, Ozawa MG, Regula DP, Pacheco-Navarro AE, Yang S, de Jesus Perez VA, Karmouty-Quintana H, Peters AM, Zhao B, Buja ML, Johnson PY, Vernon RB, Wight TN, Stanford COVID-19 Biobank Study Group, Milla CE, Rogers AJ, Spakowitz AJ, Heilshorn SC, Bollyky PL

Broad-spectrum CRISPR-mediated inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 variants and endemic coronaviruses in vitro.

Nature communications

Zeng L, Liu Y, Nguyenla XH, Abbott TR, Han M, Zhu Y, Chemparathy A, Lin X, Chen X, Wang H, Rane DA, Spatz JM, Jain S, Rustagi A, Pinsky B, Zepeda AE, Kadina AP, Walker JA, Holden K, Temperton N, Cochran JR, Barron AE, Connolly MD, Blish CA, Lewis DB, Stanley SA, La Russa MF, Qi LS

Facile discovery of surrogate cytokine agonists.

Cell

Yen M, Ren J, Liu Q, Glassman CR, Sheahan TP, Picton LK, Moreira FR, Rustagi A, Jude KM, Zhao X, Blish CA, Baric RS, Su LL, Garcia KC

The B.1.427/1.429 (epsilon) SARS-CoV-2 variants are more virulent than ancestral B.1 (614G) in Syrian hamsters.

PLoS pathogens

Carroll T, Fox D, van Doremalen N, Ball E, Morris MK, Sotomayor-Gonzalez A, Servellita V, Rustagi A, Yinda CK, Fritts L, Port JR, Ma ZM, Holbrook MG, Schulz J, Blish CA, Hanson C, Chiu CY, Munster V, Stanley S, Miller CJ

SARS-CoV-2 RNAemia Predicts Clinical Deterioration and Extrapulmonary Complications from COVID-19.

Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America

Ram-Mohan N, Kim D, Zudock EJ, Hashemi MM, Tjandra KC, Rogers AJ, Blish CA, Nadeau KC, Newberry JA, Quinn JV, O'Hara R, Ashley E, Nguyen H, Jiang L, Hung P, Blomkalns AL, Yang S, Stanford COVID-19 Biobank Study Group

Multi-omic profiling reveals widespread dysregulation of innate immunity and hematopoiesis in COVID-19.

The Journal of experimental medicine

Wilk AJ, Lee MJ, Wei B, Parks B, Pi R, Martínez-Colón GJ, Ranganath T, Zhao NQ, Taylor S, Becker W, Stanford COVID-19 Biobank, Jimenez-Morales D, Blomkalns AL, O'Hara R, Ashley EA, Nadeau KC, Yang S, Holmes S, Rabinovitch M, Rogers AJ, Greenleaf WJ, Blish CA

SARS-CoV-2 Subgenomic RNA Kinetics in Longitudinal Clinical Samples.

Open forum infectious diseases

Verma R, Kim E, Martínez-Colón GJ, Jagannathan P, Rustagi A, Parsonnet J, Bonilla H, Khosla C, Holubar M, Subramanian A, Singh U, Maldonado Y, Blish CA, Andrews JR

Synthetic Siglec-9 Agonists Inhibit Neutrophil Activation Associated with COVID-19.

ACS central science

Delaveris CS, Wilk AJ, Riley NM, Stark JC, Yang SS, Rogers AJ, Ranganath T, Nadeau KC, Stanford COVID-19 Biobank, Blish CA, Bertozzi CR

Occurrence and Timing of Subsequent Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Reverse-transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction Positivity Among Initially Negative Patients.

Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America

Long DR, Gombar S, Hogan CA, Greninger AL, O'Reilly-Shah V, Bryson-Cahn C, Stevens B, Rustagi A, Jerome KR, Kong CS, Zehnder J, Shah NH, Weiss NS, Pinsky BA, Sunshine JE

Defining the features and duration of antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection associated with disease severity and outcome.

Science immunology

Röltgen K, Powell AE, Wirz OF, Stevens BA, Hogan CA, Najeeb J, Hunter M, Wang H, Sahoo MK, Huang C, Yamamoto F, Manohar M, Manalac J, Otrelo-Cardoso AR, Pham TD, Rustagi A, Rogers AJ, Shah NH, Blish CA, Cochran JR, Jardetzky TS, Zehnder JL, Wang TT, Narasimhan B, Gombar S, Tibshirani R, Nadeau KC, Kim PS, Pinsky BA, Boyd SD

Progenitor identification and SARS-CoV-2 infection in human distal lung organoids.

Nature

Salahudeen AA, Choi SS, Rustagi A, Zhu J, van Unen V, de la O SM, Flynn RA, Margalef-Català M, Santos AJM, Ju J, Batish A, Usui T, Zheng GXY, Edwards CE, Wagar LE, Luca V, Anchang B, Nagendran M, Nguyen K, Hart DJ, Terry JM, Belgrader P, Ziraldo SB, Mikkelsen TS, Harbury PB, Glenn JS, Garcia KC, Davis MM, Baric RS, Sabatti C, Amieva MR, Blish CA, Desai TJ, Kuo CJ

Profiling of the Human Natural Killer Cell Receptor-Ligand Repertoire.

Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE

Vendrame E, McKechnie JL, Ranganath T, Zhao NQ, Rustagi A, Vergara R, Ivison GT, Kronstad LM, Simpson LJ, Blish CA

Cytokine profile in plasma of severe COVID-19 does not differ from ARDS and sepsis.

JCI insight

Wilson JG, Simpson LJ, Ferreira AM, Rustagi A, Roque J, Asuni A, Ranganath T, Grant PM, Subramanian A, Rosenberg-Hasson Y, Maecker HT, Holmes SP, Levitt JE, Blish CA, Rogers AJ

Human B Cell Clonal Expansion and Convergent Antibody Responses to SARS-CoV-2.

Cell host & microbe

Nielsen SCA, Yang F, Jackson KJL, Hoh RA, Röltgen K, Jean GH, Stevens BA, Lee JY, Rustagi A, Rogers AJ, Powell AE, Hunter M, Najeeb J, Otrelo-Cardoso AR, Yost KE, Daniel B, Nadeau KC, Chang HY, Satpathy AT, Jardetzky TS, Kim PS, Wang TT, Pinsky BA, Blish CA, Boyd SD

A single-cell atlas of the peripheral immune response in patients with severe COVID-19.

Nature medicine

Wilk AJ, Rustagi A, Zhao NQ, Roque J, Martínez-Colón GJ, McKechnie JL, Ivison GT, Ranganath T, Vergara R, Hollis T, Simpson LJ, Grant P, Subramanian A, Rogers AJ, Blish CA

Eremothecium coryli bloodstream infection in a patient with acute myeloid leukemia: first case report of human infection.

Diagnostic microbiology and infectious disease

Multani A, Rustagi A, Epstein DJ, Gomez CA, Budvytiene I, Banaei N, Brown JM, Liu AY

Deltex2 represses MyoD expression and inhibits myogenic differentiation by acting as a negative regulator of Jmjd1c.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Luo D, de Morree A, Boutet S, Quach N, Natu V, Rustagi A, Rando TA

Vpu mediates depletion of interferon regulatory factor 3 during HIV infection by a lysosome-dependent mechanism.

Journal of virology

Doehle BP, Chang K, Rustagi A, McNevin J, McElrath MJ, Gale M

HIV infection of dendritic cells subverts the IFN induction pathway via IRF-1 and inhibits type 1 IFN production.

Blood

Harman AN, Lai J, Turville S, Samarajiwa S, Gray L, Marsden V, Mercier SK, Jones K, Nasr N, Rustagi A, Cumming H, Donaghy H, Mak J, Gale M, Churchill M, Hertzog P, Cunningham AL

An inwardly rectifying potassium channel in apical membrane of Calu-3 cells.

The Journal of biological chemistry

Wu JV, Krouse ME, Rustagi A, Joo NS, Wine JJ

Regulation of antiprotease and antimicrobial protein secretion by airway submucosal gland serous cells.

The Journal of biological chemistry

Joo NS, Lee DJ, Winges KM, Rustagi A, Wine JJ