Dr. Tejpal Gill is an Assistant Professor and the Director of Basic Research at the Division of Arthritis and Rheumatic Diseases, Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), Portland. Before joining OHSU, Tejpal did her research fellowship at National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases at NIH and post-doctoral scholarship at Case Western Reserve University.

Her main focus is to decipher the host-microbe interactions leading to the pathogenesis of various spondyloarthritis (SpA), especially axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and acute anterior uveitis (AAU). Her work on deciphering the interaction between the gut microbes and the host immune response using three distinct rat models of SpA, with different disease susceptibilities, lead to the proposal of an ecological model of dysbiosis, wherein the effects of multiple microbes, with similar inflammation-inducing functions may elicit an aberrant immune response.

At present, her lab is further investigating the relationship between a genetic risk factor HLA-B27, gut microbes and host immune response in patients with axSpA, PsA and AAU using cutting edge technologies such as CITE-Seq, metabolomics and IgA/IgG sequencing. Together, these approaches will contribute towards our understanding of SpA and to generate new therapeutic targets for the treatment or prevention of SpA.