Abdolmohamad Rostami's Biography

Abdolmohamad Rostami, Nicholas Maiale Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurology, Thomas Jefferson University

Abdolmohamad Rostami, MD, PhD is Nicholas Maiale distinguished professor and Chair of the Department of Neurology and director of multiple sclerosis/neuroimmunology research laboratory at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Formerly a tenured professor of neurology and medicine, chief of multiple sclerosis and neuroimmunology division and director of Autoimmunity Center of Excellence at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn). Dr. Rostami received an MD with distinction from Shiraz University in Iran and a PhD in molecular biology from Penn. He completed his residency training followed by a fellowship in clinical multiple sclerosis and basic neuroimmunology at Penn. He then joined the faculty at the department of neurology at Penn and rose to full professor of neurology and medicine.

Dr. Rostami’s research interest is in the immunopathogenesis of multiple sclerosis and finding better therapies for this disease. He uses experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis as a model for MS. His lab has focused on the role Th17 cells and GM-CSF in EAE/MS pathogenesis. He also studies antigen specific tolerance as a mechanism to find therapies to remove the autoreactive T cells without systemic immunosuppression in autoimmune diseases. His lab has been continuously funded by the NIH since receiving his FIRST Award as a new faculty at Penn and serves on various NIH committees.

Dr. Rostami has published over 200 original papers and many review articles and book chapters. In addition to the clinical residency training, he has trained more the 60 pre and postdoctoral students and fellows who now have their own laboratories and hold leadership positions in the US and around the world. He is on the editorial board of many scientific journals and is the elected member of national and international organizations and serves on their committees.