Sara Suliman, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor
Medicine
School of Medicine
Tuberculosis (TB) disease, caused by infection with the intracellular pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) remains a leading cause of mortality globally. Interestingly, only 5-10% of Mtb-exposed individuals are estimated to develop active TB in their lifetime, thus posing host-specific factors as mediators of risk of progression to disease.
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These host factors include several defects in innate and adaptive immunity, metabolic dysregulation, co-infections and comorbidities, and genetic polymorphisms that could mediate susceptibility to TB disease. The focus of the Suliman laboratory is to generate hypotheses from systems biology approaches, such as genome-wide association studies, transcriptional and metabolomic profiling, and expression quantitative trait loci, to identify candidate TB risk pathways and functionally evaluate their roles in TB progression.
Education & Training
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- MPH Public Health University of Waterloo 10/2017
- PhD Immunology University of Toronto 06/2013
- BSc Biomedical Sciences University of Guelph 06/2006
Publications (15)
Top publication keywords:
Immunoglobulin MImmunoglobulin GMucosal-Associated Invariant T CellsTuberculosisImmunization, SecondaryMinor Histocompatibility AntigensHistocompatibility Antigens Class IBCG VaccineAntibodies, ViralFetal BloodLatent TuberculosisKiller Cells, NaturalAntitubercular AgentsMycobacterium tuberculosisIsoniazid
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Discovery Stack Pilot demonstrates the feasibility and outcomes of a scientist-designed peer-review model that separates quality and impact.
PLoS biology 2026 McGargill MA, Liu BC, Kuhns MS, Mucida D, Rauch I, Rodda LB, Koch MA, Gonzalez Velozo H, Cadwell K, Freedman TS, Scharschmidt TC, Sever R, Ordovas-Montanes J, Suliman S, Oberst A, Runnette B, Krummel … -
Prevalence of Long COVID in Mycobacterium tuberculosis-exposed groups.
Journal of clinical tuberculosis and other mycobacterial diseases 2026 Cardenas-Jara AR, Ongaya A, Shiluli C, Ramos LB, Senador LC, Flores JA, Kanoi BN, Reijneveld JF, Ruvalcaba A, Perez D, Waiganjo P, Lindestam-Arlehamn CS, Henrich TJ, Peluso MJ, Leon SR, Gitaka J, … -
The evolution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis as humans migrated out of Africa.
Nature reviews. Genetics 2026 Suliman S -
Leveraging community engagement to shape biomedical research priorities.
Trends in immunology 2025 Suliman S, Agyei L, Afzal SA, Williams S -
Unmasking the hidden impact of viruses on tuberculosis risk.
Trends in immunology 2024 Darboe F, Reijneveld JF, Maison DP, Martinez L, Suliman S
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History of tuberculosis disease is associated with genetic regulatory variation in Peruvians.
PLoS genetics 2024 Nieto-Caballero VE, Reijneveld JF, Ruvalcaba A, Innocenzi G, Abeydeera N, Asgari S, Lopez K, Iwany SK, Luo Y, Nathan A, Fernandez-Salinas D, Chiñas M, Huang CC, Zhang Z, León SR, Calderon RI, Lecca L,… -
Predicting Pediatric Tuberculosis: The Need for Age-Specific Host Biosignatures.
Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America 2023 Suliman S, Jaganath D, DiNardo A -
Performance Evaluation of Lateral Flow Assays for Coronavirus Disease-19 Serology.
Clinics in laboratory medicine 2021 Ochola L, Ogongo P, Mungai S, Gitaka J, Suliman S -
Evaluation of serological lateral flow assays for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2.
BMC infectious diseases 2021 Trombetta BA, Kandigian SE, Kitchen RR, Grauwet K, Webb PK, Miller GA, Jennings CG, Jain S, Miller S, Kuo Y, Sweeney T, Gilboa T, Norman M, Simmons DP, Ramirez CE, Bedard M, Fink C, Ko J, De León … -
Multimodally profiling memory T cells from a tuberculosis cohort identifies cell state associations with demographics, environment and disease.
Nature immunology 2021 Nathan A, Beynor JI, Baglaenko Y, Suliman S, Ishigaki K, Asgari S, Huang CC, Luo Y, Zhang Z, Lopez K, Lindestam Arlehamn CS, Ernst JD, Jimenez J, Calderón RI, Lecca L, Van Rhijn I, Moody DB, Murray MB… -
Peripheral Blood Mucosal-Associated Invariant T Cells in Tuberculosis Patients and Healthy Mycobacterium tuberculosis-Exposed Controls.
The Journal of infectious diseases 2020 Suliman S, Gela A, Mendelsohn SC, Iwany SK, Tamara KL, Mabwe S, Bilek N, Darboe F, Fisher M, Corbett AJ, Kjer-Nielsen L, Eckle SBG, Huang CC, Zhang Z, Lewinsohn DM, McCluskey J, Rossjohn J, Hatherill … -
MR1-Independent Activation of Human Mucosal-Associated Invariant T Cells by Mycobacteria.
Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) 2019 Suliman S, Murphy M, Musvosvi M, Gela A, Meermeier EW, Geldenhuys H, Hopley C, Toefy A, Bilek N, Veldsman A, Hanekom WA, Johnson JL, Boom WH, Obermoser G, Huang H, Hatherill M, Lewinsohn DM, Nemes E, … -
Early progression to active tuberculosis is a highly heritable trait driven by 3q23 in Peruvians.
Nature communications 2019 Luo Y, Suliman S, Asgari S, Amariuta T, Baglaenko Y, Martínez-Bonet M, Ishigaki K, Gutierrez-Arcelus M, Calderon R, Lecca L, León SR, Jimenez J, Yataco R, Contreras C, Galea JT, Becerra M, Nejentsev S… -
Four-Gene Pan-African Blood Signature Predicts Progression to Tuberculosis.
American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine 2018 Suliman S, Thompson EG, Sutherland J, Weiner J, Ota MOC, Shankar S, Penn-Nicholson A, Thiel B, Erasmus M, Maertzdorf J, Duffy FJ, Hill PC, Hughes EJ, Stanley K, Downing K, Fisher ML, Valvo J, Parida … -
Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) Revaccination of Adults with Latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection Induces Long-Lived BCG-Reactive NK Cell Responses.
Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) 2016 Suliman S, Geldenhuys H, Johnson JL, Hughes JE, Smit E, Murphy M, Toefy A, Lerumo L, Hopley C, Pienaar B, Chheng P, Nemes E, Hoft DF, Hanekom WA, Boom WH, Hatherill M, Scriba TJ