Hajera Amatullah is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research explores the role of epigenetic regulators and altered chromatin landscapes in asthma, IBD and lupus. Dr. Amatullah uses immunological, molecular biology, and epigenetic approaches in primary human cells and mouse models to understand how chromatin dysregulation contributes to chronic immune disease susceptibility.

Dr. Amatullah was born in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates and grew up in Toronto, Canada. She attended the University of Toronto for her undergraduate, Masters, and PhD training. Her undergraduate and Masters research work with Dr. Jeremy Scott explored the impact of particulate air pollution on mouse models of asthma. She received her PhD in physiology with Dr. Claudia dos Santos, deciphering the role of anti-oxidant DJ-1/PARK7 in mouse sepsis models of acute lung injury and multi-organ failure. She subsequently received a postdoctoral fellowship from the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) for her training with Dr. Kate L. Jeffrey at the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. During her postdoctoral training, she elucidated the molecular mechanisms by which epigenetic regulator SP140 regulates innate immune identity and function and how this is disrupted in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.