People: Immunology Infectious Disease

Jordan Bisanz

Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
The interface of microbiology and bioinformatics, with approaches including genomics and metabolomics to investigate the interplay of diet, drugs, and the gut microbiome.

Ottar Bjornstad

Huck Chair of Epidemiology; Distinguished Professor of Entomology and Biology; Adjunct Professor in Statistics
Population ecology and population dynamics with particular emphasis on mathematical and computational aspects

Seth Bordenstein

Director of the Microbiome Center; Huck Chair in Microbiome Sciences; Professor of Biology and Entomology
The evolutionary and genetic principles that shape symbiotic interactions between animals, microbes, and viruses and the major applications of these interactions to human health.

Margherita Cantorna

Director of the Center for Molecular Immunology and Infectious Disease; Distinguished Professor of Molecular Immunology
Understanding the working of the immune system. Utilizing animal models of several human diseases including enteric infections and inflammatory bowel disease to determine the cellular targets and molecular signals by which dietary components regulate immunity.

Isabella Cattadori

Professor of Biology
Immuno-epidemiology of co-infection, how host immunity modulates parasite interactions and transmission and how host molecular processes explain the dynamics of infection at the population level.

Edward Dudley

Professor of Food Science; Director of E. coli Reference Center
Mechanisms driving toxin production in Shiga-toxigenic Escherichia coli; use of genome sequencing to track pathogen transmission during foodborne outbreaks

Sagan Friant

Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Evolutionary anthropology of human health, disease ecology, nutrition, socio-ecological systems, bushmeat hunting, Nigeria.

Erika Ganda

Emphasis Area Representative, Microbiome Sciences; Assistant Professor of Food Animal Microbiomes
Developing practical ways to leverage the microbiome to improve food safety and improve food production animals' production efficiency.

Pamela Giblin

Professor of Immunology
The role of receptor tyrosine kinases in normal physiology and disease progression; the downstream signals that mediate these responses in vivo and in vitro.

Urara Hasegawa

Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
The development of polymeric nanomaterials for controlled delivery of drug and bioactive signaling molecules

Kevin Hockett

Huck Early Career Chair; Associate Professor of Microbial Ecology
Biological Control, Biology and Ecology of Plant-Microbe and Plant-Environment Interactions, Microbial Ecology and Population Biology Faculty

Peter Hudson

Former Director, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences; Willaman Professor of Biology
Population dynamics of infectious diseases in wildlife and the dynamics of parasite community structure.

Camilla Hughes

Assistant Professor of Reproductive Biology
Reproductive biology, ovarian function, and reproductive-immune interaction

Joyce Jose

Associate Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Virus-host interactions involved in the pathogenesis of alphaviruses and flaviviruses. Analysis of virus induced structures and cytoskeletal modifications in mammalian host and insect vector using high-resolution live cell imaging and electron microscopy. Viral determinants of neurotropism, encephalitis, transmission and persistence in BSL-3 pathogens.

Parisa Kalantari

Assistant Professor of Immunology
Host-parasite interactions using Schistosoma mansoni-induced liver inflammation in mouse models. Modulation of immune responses by the parasite as well as the role of inflammasomes in inducing schistosomiasis.

Vivek Kapur

Associate Director, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences; Huck Distinguished Chair in Global Health; Professor of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
The basic mechanisms by which pathogenic microbes successfully infect, colonize, and cause disease in their hosts.

Joshua Kellogg

Emphasis Area Representative, Molecular Toxicology; Assistant Professor of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences
Development of new metabolomics tools for chemical and biological characterization of complex systems. Discovery of new natural products from plants and microorganisms with novel bioactivity against pathogenic fungi and neglected tropical diseases. Bioanalytical techniques to probe the mechanism of action and basic biology of these target organisms. Ethnobotany and indigenous knowledge surrounding plant-based medicine.

David Kennedy

Assistant Professor of Biology
Ecology and evolution of infectious diseases, with particular interest in how disease dynamics influence pathogen emergence, virulence evolution, and drug or vaccine resistance.

Girish Kirimanjeswara

Emphasis Area Representative, Immunology and Infectious Disease; Associate Professor of Veterinary and Biomedical Science
Establishing the Virulence Factors

Jasna Kovac

Lester Earl and Veronica Casida Career Development Professor of Food Safety; Associate Professor of Food Science
Integrating epidemiological, microbiological, molecular and omics methods to better understand microbial pathogenic potential, antimicrobial resistance, and epidemiology of foodborne pathogens.

Scott Lindner

Associate Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Co-Director, Center for Malaria Research
Our laboratory couples molecular parasitology and structural biology to study the malaria parasite (Plasmodium spp.).

Manuel Llinas

Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Understanding the molecular mechanisms of gene regulation and metabolism in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum using functional genomics and metabolomics.

Elizabeth McGraw

Professor and Huck Scholar in Entomology
The genetics of vector, pathogen and symbiont interactions.

Melanie McReynolds

Huck Early Career Chair in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
The biochemistry behind aging and its intersection with stress, with the long-term goal of identifying strategies that promote healthier aging.

Scott Medina

Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Design of bio-inspired functional materials that serve as new tools in precision medicine. Understanding how peptides and proteins assemble at natural and non-natural interfaces to form organized structures with unique biochemical functions. The design of nano- and micro-scale biomaterials to develop new biosensing and therapeutic strategies to treat infectious disease, inflammation and cancer.

Timothy Meredith

Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Understanding how bacterial cell surface complex lipids are synthesized, to characterize structural modifications in response to varying growth environments, and to uncover how these changes are regulated.

Katsuhiko Murakami

Faculty Director of the Cryo-Electron Microscopy Core Facility; Interim Director, Center for Structural Biology; Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Structural and Mechanistic Enzymology of Prokaryotic RNA Polymerases

Troy Ott

C. Lee Rumberger and Family Chair in Agricultural Sciences; Professor of Reproductive Physiology
Reproductive immunology and the physiology of early pregnancy.

Robert Paulson

Professor of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences
The Paulson lab studies the mechanisms that regulate tissue regeneration with a focus on understanding the response to anemic and hypoxic stress

Kumble Sandeep Prabhu

Professor of Immunology and Molecular Toxicology
Molecular mechanisms by which bioactives such as selenium, omega-3 fatty acids, and other products of natural origin alter the host response and immune function in inflammation and cancer

Jason Rasgon

Professor of Entomology and Disease Epidemiology
Integrating population biology, ecology, molecular tools and theory to address fundamental and applied questions related to vector arthropods and the pathogens they transmit.

Joseph Reese

Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Gene regulation in cell cycle and DNA damage control; regulation of DNA damage-induced transcription.

Anthony Schmitt

Professor of Molecular Immunology and Infectious Diseases
The process of paramyxovirus particle formation by budding: identifying and characterizing viral proteins used in budding, and learning how these manipulate host budding machinery to allow virus release.

Amir Sheikhi

Huck Early Career Chair in Biomaterials and Regenerative Engineering ; Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering
Micro- and nanoengineered soft materials for medicine and the environment; microfluidic-enabled biomaterials for tissue engineering and regeneration; living materials; next-generation bioadhesives, tissue sealants, and hemostatic agents; hydrogels for minimally invasive medical technologies; self-healing and adaptable soft materials; smart coatings; hairy nanocelluloses as an emerging family of advanced materials.

Vishal Singh

Assistant Professor of Nutritional Physiology and Microbiome

Troy Sutton

Huck Early Career Chair in Virology, Associate Professor of Immunology and Infectious Disease
Animal models of influenza; Airborne transmission of influenza viruses; Evolution of pandemic influenza viruses; Highly pathogenic avian influenza; Development of live-attenuated influenza vaccine platforms; High containment BSL3+ research

Moriah Szpara

Professor of Biology
How genetic variation influences the outcomes of viral infection, particularly for neurotropic viruses such as herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) and HSV-2, using high-throughput sequencing, comparative genomics, neuronal cultures, and genetic manipulation of both host and pathogen.

Emily Weinert

Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
The mechanisms by which bacteria sense and respond to the environment, as well as how these signaling proteins/pathways affect competition, host colonization, and pathogenesis.

Laura Weyrich

Associate Professor of Anthropology
Reconstructing ancient oral microbiomes and supporting ancient DNA analysis of past humans, environments, and animals.

Ruobo Zhou

Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Quantitatively and functionally understanding the compartmentalization and spatiotemporal organization of protein-protein and protein-RNA interactions involved in fundamental cell functions as well as in cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.