Dr. Khalil Mallah is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology & Immunology at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), with a dual appointment in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. He also serves as a Research Health Scientist at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston. His lab investigates how neuroimmune interactions contribute to worsening pathology following traumatic brain injury.
Dr. Mallah earned his Master's degree in Molecular Biology from the Lebanese University, Faculty of Sciences, followed by a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Lille, France, in 2018, where his doctoral research applied mass spectrometry imaging and spatial proteomics to models of traumatic brain injury. He completed postdoctoral training at MUSC in the Department of Pharmacology & Immunology from 2019 to 2025 before joining the faculty in the department as Assistant Professor.
While the primary injury occurs within seconds, the resulting neuroimmune response evolves over months to years and critically shapes long-term neurological and psychiatric outcomes. His lab investigates how injury-driven neuroimmune activity alters neural function and behavior, contributing to persistent cognitive and affective impairment, and examines how these immune processes evolve across brain regions to influence recovery during both acute and chronic phases of TBI. Dr. Mallah's lab uses advanced imaging, immune profiling, and multi-omics approaches to understand how the complement system drives sustained neuroinflammation after TBI, with the goal of identifying new targets to prevent lasting cognitive and psychiatric impairment.
Dr. Mallah's work has been published in journals including Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, Acta Neuropathologica Communications, Analytical Chemistry, and Molecular & Cellular Proteomics.
Social Media:
X: @KhalilMallahPhD
LinkedIn: Khalil Mallah