Dr. Michael Shiloh first developed an interest in biomedical research while studying chemistry and enzymology at Penn State University. As part of the Tri-Institutional MD-PhD program in New York City, he graduated from Cornell University with an M.D. and Ph.D. in Immunology. Dr. Shiloh continued his training at the University of California San Francisco, completing internal medice residency and infectious diseases fellowship. It was there that his interests in immunology merged with his interest in microbiology, and he applied his efforts towards understanding the global pandemic of tuberculosis, a research focus he continued when he joined the faculty at UT Southwestern.

The long term goals of the Shiloh laboratory are to improve our understanding of Mycobacterium tuberculosis pathogenesis. For example, his team identified mucosal microfold cells as a portal of entry for M. tuberculosis and characterized the pathogen-host molecular interactions that mediate M. tuberculosis invasion into microfold cells. Within infected macrophages, his lab demonstrated an important role for the host enzyme heme oxygenase and its product carbon monoxide in M. tuberculosis pathogenesis and identified the mammalian proteins cGAS and Smurf1 as vital for the macrophage response and activation of autophagy in response to M. tuberculosis infection. Most recently, his lab described a mechanism for airway nociceptive neuron activation and cough induction by an M. tuberculosis lipid. Collectively, Dr. Shiloh’s research aims to generate a better understanding of the M. tuberculosis infectious cycle, from the role of bacterial-induced cough in mediating transmission, to microfold cell entry and finally intracellular survival.

In addition to his research, Dr. Shiloh is also an attending consulting physician in infectious diseases at Parkland Hospital and UT Southwestern Clements University Hospital.