- Professor, Department of Medicine, NYU Grossman School of Medicine / NYU Langone Health
Dr. Mukundan G. Attur is a molecular biologist and Professor in the Department of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, with more than 20 years of experience in osteoarthritis (OA) research encompassing cytokine assessment, applied functional genomics, and translational biomarker science. Using genomic approaches, he has identified genes and proteins differentially expressed in osteoarthritic cartilage and performed functional studies to validate their roles in cartilage homeostasis.
Through global gene expression studies, Dr. Attur and his colleagues identified differential expression of inflammatory mediators — including IL-1β, TNFα, and COX-2 — in OA peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), and subsequent pathway analysis established an IL-1 inflammatory gene signature in the peripheral blood of OA patients. Building on this foundation, he contributed to groundbreaking research demonstrating the role of low-grade systemic inflammation in the radiographic progression of knee OA. More recently, his work has examined IL-1RN single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and haplotypes in relation to OA incidence and characterized the functional consequences of these variants on chondrocyte and synovial fibroblast biology.
Dr. Attur’s research has expanded beyond musculoskeletal disease to include broader inflammatory conditions. He demonstrated that genetic variants in the IL-1RN gene modulate cytokine release syndrome and mortality in hospitalized patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection, and has shown that viral persistence reduces circulating serotonin levels, providing a potential mechanistic link to long COVID symptomatology.
His expertise in molecular biology, biomarker science, and functional genomics, combined with longstanding collaborations across rheumatology, orthopedic surgery, and interventional radiology, positions Dr. Attur as a skilled investigator on translational research initiatives.