Manish Sagar, MD

Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Biography

Dr. Manish Sagar is a Professor of Medicine at the Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. His laboratory is primarily interested in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) mucosal HIV-1 transmission and antibodies. One of the focuses is to understand the biological mechanisms for the selection observed during HIV-1 transmission. Even though chronically infected subjects harbor extensive variants during transmission, only a limited number of viruses are acquired by newly infected partners. Genotypic examination of viruses present in the newly infected subject compared to those circulating in the transmitting partner suggests that the observed genetic bottleneck during transmission is not due to random chance. Laboratory studies explore the hypothesis that during transmission there is selection of specific variants with properties that confer fitness for transmission.

Another focus in the lab is to decipher correlate of immune protection. Even though infants are exposed to infected breast milk, only a small proportion (around 30%) acquire HIV-1 from their infected mother in the absence of antiretroviral protection. The lab hypothesizes that maternally acquired antibodies present in the infant prevent HIV-1 acquisition either through neutralization or antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity against the variants circulating in the maternal breast milk. Defining the immune correlate of protection will have important implications for HIV-1 vaccine design. Their work focuses on understanding HIV-1 envelope and host antibody evolution and impact on disease pathogenesis.

Dr. Sagar has served on numerous committees including NIH study sections and Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Early Career Development Award Review Committee. He is an active member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).

Publications

  • Published 2/19/2026

    Sheng Z, Xiao Q, Qiao Y, Lu H, McWhirter J, Sagar M, Wu X. NanoHIVSeq: A Long-Read Bioinformatics Pipeline for High-Throughput Processing of HIV Env Sequences. bioRxiv. 2026 Feb 19. PMID: 41756955.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 10/13/2025

    Collins DR, Olatotse MJ, Urbach JM, Zhuo Z, Zhao S, Lilie TJ, Raymond R, He X, Chen JY, Coffey B, Arshad U, Racenet ZJ, Wisner H, Casquero C, Guo X, Walters LC, Davis JM, Jordan HC, Sohail N, Clayton KL, Sagar M, Billingsley J, Sui SH, Mazzola E, Walker BD, Tsibris A. CD8+ T cell recall cytotoxicity during chronic treated HIV-1 infection is associated with limited reservoir size and activity. medRxiv. 2025 Oct 13. PMID: 41282862.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 6/18/2025

    Parayil T, Monroe J, Bean DJ, Sagar M. Common Cold Coronavirus Test Positivity Decreased After Widespread SARS-CoV-2 Experience. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2025 Jul; 12(7):ofaf326. PMID: 40599488.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 6/18/2025

    LaVerriere E, Behar S, Sher-Jan C, Liang YM, Sagar M, Connor JH. Genomic Epidemiology of Respiratory Syncytial Virus in a New England Hospital System, 2024. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2025 Jun; 12(6):ofaf334. PMID: 40567998.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 6/10/2025

    Ramaswamy S, Akiyama H, Berrigan J, Quiñones-Molina AA, Olson AJ, Chen Y, Liang Y, Henderson AJ, Asundi A, Sagar M, Gummuluru S. The macrophage-intrinsic MDA5/IRF5 axis drives HIV-1 intron-containing RNA-induced inflammatory responses. J Clin Invest. 2025 Aug 15; 135(16). PMID: 40493408.

    Read at: PubMed

View All 73 Publications:   View Full Profile in BUMC

Other Positions

  • Professor, Virology, Immunology & Microbiology
    Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
  • Member, Genome Science Institute
    Boston University
  • Graduate Medical Sciences Educator and Mentor (Primary Mentor of Graduate Students)
    Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Graduate Medical Sciences

Websites

Education

  • Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, MD
  • Columbia University, BS

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