Sushma Cribbs BA, MD, MSc

Dr. Cribbs completed her undergraduate and medical school education (2002) at Boston University. She trained in Internal Medicine at Emory University from 2002-2005. During her residency, she initiated a multi-institutional collaborative effort to examine how body mass index modulates airway inflammation and lung hysteresis in asthma. She secured funding for this project and performed a year of research prior to her fellowship training as a Senior Associate in Emory’s Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, extending this project to investigations related to adipokines, eicosanoid lipid mediators, and biomarkers of airway oxidative stress in obese asthmatics. Dr. Cribbs then pursued her fellowship training at Emory from 2006-2009. Following fellowship, she was recruited to stay at Emory University on faculty as Assistant Professor of Medicine. She has served in a number of leadership positions since joining the faculty including Medical Director of the Pulmonary Clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital, Associate Program Director of the Pulmonary & Critical Care Fellowship Program and Director of Home Oxygen Respiratory Program at the Atlanta VA Hospital. Dr. Cribbs’ research is focused on studying the mechanisms by which human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV) affects lung immunity rendering individuals susceptible to lung infections.

She is currently leading several collaborative, multi-disciplinary translational research projects to elucidate the potential pathways by which HIV infection impairs lung immune functions. She has been funded through an NIH KL2 Career Development Award from Emory University, the NIH Loan Repayment Program and is currently a Co-Investigator on a number of grants funded by NHLBI. Additionally, she obtained a Masters of Science in Clinical Research (MSCR) degree from Emory’s Laney Graduate School. Dr. Cribbs is heavily involved with the Pulmonary & Critical Care Fellowship Program and a variety of committees on a Division and Department level. In addition, she serves on numerous committees within national/international professional organizations including the American Thoracic Society. She is currently based at the VA where she continues to see patients and supervise students, residents, and fellows.