Dr. Monos is an internationally recognized expert on histocompatibility (HLA) molecules. His work covers a wide spectrum of HLA-related issues that pertain to both the molecular (structure/function) aspects of HLAs, as well as the genetics of the major histocompatibility complex, that includes the genes encoding the HLA molecules.
Dr. Monos has established, and is the Director, of the Immunogenetics Laboratory in the Department of Pathology and Lab Medicine of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The lab interacts with the clinical Divisions of Bone Marrow Transplantation, Oncology, Hematology, Nephrology, Cardiology, Gastroenterology, Rheumatology, Neurology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases. The Immunogenetics laboratory supports all the transplantation programs at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and any clinical programs that need HLA typing for their patients.
BS, Biology, University of Patras, Greece
PhD, Biochemistry/Immunology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
Director, Immunogenetics Laboratory
Evelyn Willing Bromley Endowed Chair in Clinical Laboratories and Pathology
Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Monos’s research interests cover a wide spectrum of HLA-related topics. His lab, in conjunction with other laboratories, has pioneered the DNA-based methodologies for HLA typing. He has worked on a number of structure/function relationships of HLAs, which are very important for the immune response and he has identified associations of HLAs with several diseases, including Type 1 Diabetes, Pemphigus Vulgaris, Tuberculoid Leprosy, Berylliosis, Sarcoidosis, Guillain Barre Syndrome, Ovarian Carcinoma and Crohn’s Disease.
His work has also contributed on the development of the very key concept that the strong linkage disequilibrium observed within the MHC does not simply reflect the significance of several genes within this genomic region for the physiological functioning of the immune system but also for the observed disease associations with the HLAs. Genes within the MHC in coordination or independently of particular HLA alleles generate the disease phenotype. The realization that there are additional genes, besides HLAs within the MHC for predisposing to disease susceptibility has been the guiding principle for the recent intense efforts to fully characterize this genomic region and investigate disease associations with a dense set of SNPs.
He also collaborates with the Stem Cell Transplant team, the Nephrology, Cardiology and Gastroenterology Divisions at CHOP and perform research on a number of clinically related projects, where support from the Immunogenetics lab is necessary. His work has been funded by NIH, ADA, JDRF, NMDP and other external sources.
O'Connor MJ, Menteer J, Chrisant MR, Monos D, Lind C, Levine S, Gaynor JW, Hanna BD, Paridon SM, Ravishankar C, Kaufman BD. Ventricular assist device-associated anti-human leukocyte antigen antibody sensitization in pediatric patients bridged to heart transplantation. J Heart Lung Transplant. 2010 Jan;29(1):109-16.
Lind C, Ferriola D, Mackiewicz K, Heron S, Rogers M, Slavich L, Walker R, Hsiao T, McLaughlin L, D'Arcy M, Gai X, Goodridge D, Sayer D, Monos D. Next-Generation Sequencing: The Solution for High-Resolution, Unambiguous HLA Typing. Hum Immunol. 2010 Jul 2.
Grant SF, Qu HQ, Bradfield JP, Marchand L, Kim CE, Glessner JT, Grabs R, Taback SP, Frackelton EC, Eckert AW, Annaiah K, Lawson ML, Otieno FG, Santa E, Shaner JL, Smith RM, Skraban R, Imielinski M, Chiavacci RM, Grundmeier RW, Stanley CA, Kirsch SE, Waggott D, Paterson AD; The DCCT/EDIC Research Group, Monos DS, Polychronakos C, Hakonarson H. Follow up analysis of genome-wide association data identifies novel loci for type 1 diabetes. Diabetes 58: 290-295, 2009. PMID: 18840781
Hakonarson H, Qu HQ, Bradfield JP, Marchand L, Kim CE, Glessner JT, Grabs R, Casalunovo T, Taback SP, Frackelton EC, Eckert A, Annaiah K, Lawson ML Robinson LJ, Skraban R, Lu Y, Chiavacci R, Stanley CA, Kirsch SE, Devoto M, Monos D, Grant S, Polychronakos C. A. A novel susceptibility locus for type 1 diabetes, identified by a genome-wide association study. Diabetes 57: 1143-1146, 2008.
Pradhan M, Raffaelli R, Lind C, Meyers KEC, Kaplan, B, Baluarte HJ, Monos D. Successful Deceased Donor Renal Transplant in a Sensitized Pediatric Recipient with the Use of Plasmapheresis. Pediatric Transplantation 12: 711-716, 2008.
Dapprich J, Ferriola D, Magira E. E, KunkelM, Monos D. SNP-Specific Extraction of Haplotype-Resolved Targeted Genomic Regions. Nucleic Acid Research Sep;36(15):e94. Epub Jul 8, 2008.
Kanterakis S, MagiraE, Rosenman KD, Rossman M, Talsania K and Monos D. SKDM HLA Tool: A Comprehensive HLA and Disease Associations Analysis Software. Human Immunol. 69: 522-525, 2008.
Kugathasan S, Baldassano R, Bradfield J, Sleiman P, Imielinski M, Guthery S, Cucchiara S, Kim C, Frackelton E, Annaiah K, Glessner J, Santa E, Willson T, Eckert A, Bonkowski E, Shaner J, Smith R, Otieno FG, Peterson N, Abrams D, Chiavacci R, Grundmeier R, Mamula P, Tomer G, Piccoli D, Monos D, Annese V, Denson LA, Grant S and Hakonarson H.Loci on 20q13 and 21q22 are associated with pediatric-onset inflammatory bowel disease. Nat Genet. 40: 1211-1215, 2008. PMID: 18758464
Rossman M.D, Thompson B, Frederick M, Iannuzzi Michael C, Rybicki B.A, Pandey J.P, Newman L.S, Rose C, Magira E, Monos D, and the ACCESS Group. HLA and Environmental interactions in Sarcoidosis Vasculitis and Diffuse Lung Diseases 25: 125-132, 2008. PMID:19382531
Dapprich J, Samonte M, Magira E, Rosenman K. Monos D. Identification of a Novel HLA-DPB1 Allele (DPB1*1902) by Haplotype Specific Extraction and Nucleotide Sequencing. Tissue Antigens 69:282-283, 2007
Baldassano RN, Bradfield JP, Monos D, Kim CE, Glessner JT, Tracy Casalunovo, Edward C. Frackelton, F. Otieno G, Kanterakis S, Shaner J, Smith R, Eckert A, Robinson L, Onyiah C, Abrams D, Chiavacci R, Skraban R, Devoto M, Grant S, Hakonarson H. Association of the T300A non-synonymous variant of the ATG16L1 gene with susceptibility to pediatric Crohn’s disease. GUT 56: 1171-1173, 2007
Baldassano RN, Bradfield JP, Monos D, Kim CE, Glessner JT, Casalunovo T, Edward C. Frackelton, F. Otieno G, Kanterakis S, Shaner J, Smith R, Eckert A, Robinson L, Onyiah C, Abrams D, Chiavacci R, Skraban R, Devoto M, Grant S, Hakonarson H. Association of variants of the interleukin-23 receptor (IL23R) gene with susceptibility to pediatric Crohn's disease. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology 5:972-976, 2007
Hakonarson H, Grant S, Bradfield JP, Marchand L, Kim CE, Glessner JT, Grabs R, Casalunovo T, Taback SP, Frackelton EC, Lawson ML, Robinson LJ, Skraban R, Lu Y, Chiavacci R, Stanley CA, Kirsch SE, Rappaport EF, Orange JS, Monos D, Devoto M, Marcella, Qu HQ, Polychronakos C. A Genome-Wide Association Study Identifies KIAA0350 as a novel Type 1 Diabetes Gene. Nature 448: 591-594, 2007