Hozefa Bandukwala BSc, MSc, PhD

Hozefa leads the biology effort at Rheos. Prior to joining Rheos, he was Associate Research Fellow in Pfizer’s Inflammation & Immunology Research Unit, leading discovery efforts to identify novel targets for autoimmunity. Before joining Pfizer Hozefa held a faculty position at the La Jolla Institute of Allergy and Immunology, and consulted for a biotech company CalciMedica. Hozefa earned his PhD from the University of Chicago, where his research thesis focused on evaluating the contribution of Fc receptors in the function of dendritic cells. He completed postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School, where he focused on the role of epigenetic regulation of genes involved in the inflammatory responses of T-cells. His research uncovered a novel link between epigenetic modification in immune cells and their ability to reprogram their metabolic pathways to meet the increased energy and biosynthetic demands required for inducing inflammatory functions.