Immunology & Microbial Pathogenesis

Juliana Benitez
Juliana.Benitez@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Fall 2022
Thesis Advisor: Luis Sigal, PhD
Project: I am researching the mechanisms and cell populations responsible for antigen presentation to CD8 T-cells after mRNA vaccination.

Emilee Brockner
Emilee.Brockner@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Fall 2023
Thesis Advisor: Fabienne Paumet, PhD
Project: Chlamydia trachomatis is an obligate intracellular pathogen responsible for significant disease burden as the most common sexually transmitted infection and the leading cause of infectious blindness. My project focuses on elucidating how IncA-mediated homotypic inclusion fusion during Chlamydia infection promotes pathogenicity and alters the host immune response.

Tien Bui
Tien.Bui@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Summer 2022
Thesis Advisor: Zia Rahman,MD, PhD
Project: My project focuses on understanding the regulatory mechanisms of an E3 ubiquitin ligase Peli1 in systemic autoimmunity development using various SLE mouse models. Specifically, I will be investigating its potential role in regulating autoreactive B cell development in the germinal center or extrafollicular plasma cell differentiation pathway.

Miao Cao (MD/PhD)
Miao.Cao@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Summer 2022
Thesis Advisor: Adam Snook, PhD
Project: TBA

Jihae Choi
Jihae.Choi@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Summer 2022
Thesis Advisor: Sangwon Kim, PhD
Project: TBA

Vincent Cooper
Vincent.Cooper@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Fall 2022
Thesis Advisor: Botond Igyártó, PhD
Project: Mechanistic studies of contact dependent mRNA transfer between dendritic cells and their neighbors.

Jacqueline Flynn
Jaqueline.Flynn@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Summer 2022
Thesis Advisor: Claudia Capparelli, PhD
Project: My project focuses on characterizing extracellular matrix remodeling in drug-tolerant, phenotypically mesenchymal cell states in melanoma as a mechanism of adaptive resistance to therapies and targeting resistant cell populations to boost CD8+ T cell infiltration to the tumor immune microenvironment.

Soprina Guarneri
Soprina.Guarneri@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Fall 2023
Thesis Advisor: Anjali Mishra, PhD
Project: TBA

Zachary Hutchins
Zachary.Hutchins@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Summer 2021
Thesis Advisor: Anjali Mishra, PhD
Project: TBA

Samita Kafle
Samita.Kafle@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Fall 2020
Thesis Advisor: Luis Sigal, PhD
Project: I study the role of innate immunity, particularly Type I and III Interferons, in controlling Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) pathogenesis, a non-polio enterovirus that is the leading cause of viral myocarditis in children, by using specific Interferon-Knockout mouse models.

Christine Linton
Christine.Linton@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Fall 2020
Thesis Advisor: Fabienne Paumet, PhD
Project: Chlamydia trachomatis is an obligate intracellular pathogen responsible for significant disease burden as a sexually transmitted infection and as the leading cause of infectious blindness.  This bacterial pathogen survives inside its host cell, causing dramatic cellular rearrangements to establish an inclusion in which to grow, replicate, and evade host immune detection. My project focuses on a chlamydial fusion protein involved in inclusion dynamics and the functional consequences of inclusion fusion on pathogenesis.

Jessica McCord
Jessica.McCord@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Fall 2021
Thesis Advisor: Christopher Snyder, PhD
Project: TBA

Jesse Miller
Jesse.Miller@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Fall 2023
Thesis Advisor: Matthias Schnell, PhD (Mentor)/ Drishya Kurup, PhD (Co-mentor)
Project: TBA

Aaren Milne
Aaren.Milne@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Fall 2023
Thesis Advisor: Fabienne Paumet, PhD
Project: The Chlamydial Protein InaC Coordinates the Reorganization of Actin and Microtubules via Two Functional Domains

Jacob Myers (MD/PhD)
Jacob.Myers@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Summer 2023
Thesis Advisor: Matthias Schnell, PhD
Project: TBA

Daniel Netting
Daniel.Netting@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Fall 2021
Thesis Advisor: Adriana Mantegazza, PhD
Project: Professional phagocytes, such as dendritic cells and macrophages, must be able to sense and transport nutrients in the phagosome in order to better recognize and respond to phagosomal cargo. My research is centered around the role of nucleoside transport in the dendritic cell lysosome and phagosome, mediated by solute carrier 29A3, and how nucleoside transport contributes to the induction and regulation of immune responses.

Gerald O'Connor
Gerald.O'Connor@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Fall 2021
Thesis Advisor: Sangwon Kim, PhD
Project: C10ORF99 is a protein that is highly expressed in the colon at steady state and functions as the homing ligand for GPR15-expressing cells. In addition to its function as GPR15’s ligand, there is also evidence from skin studies that C10ORF99 has GPR15-independent functions. However, in vivo studies regarding its GPR15-independent roles in the colon, specifically as they relate to inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer, have been lacking. My project addresses this knowledge gap around C10ORF99’s GPR15-independent functions as they relate to colon homeostasis.

Mary O'Mara
Mary.O'Mara@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Summer 2022
Thesis Advisor: Holly Ramage, PhD
Project: My project explores the molecular interactions between viral and host proteins during flavivirus infection to identify novel mechanisms of host antiviral immunity and viral immune evasion.

Sergey Panteleev
Sergey.Panteleev@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Fall 2021
Thesis Advisor: Yuri Sykulev, PhD
Project: TBA

Shantel Rios
Shantel.Rios@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Fall 2019
Thesis Advisor: Matthias Schnell, PhD
Project: My project aids in the development of Rhabdoviral-based Lyme disease vaccines utilizing Borrelia burgdorferi and deer tick antigens.

Nathan Ryan
Nathan.Ryan@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Fall 2020
Thesis Advisor: David Abraham, PhD
Project: Onchocerciasis is a debilitating neglected tropical disease caused by the filarial nematode Onchocerca volvulus. Over the past several years, the Abraham Lab and various collaborators have developed a bivalent, recombinant antigen vaccine that has been shown to induce a protective immune response in various animal models. My project aims to understand the mechanism in which the Onchocerca Vaccine induces protective immunity and how this knowledge can be applied to understanding the broader interaction between the immune system and parasitic nematodes.

Carly Smith
Carly.Smith2@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Fall 2021
Thesis Advisor: Theresa Freeman, PhD
Project: I am investigating the use of cold atmospheric plasma for treatment of orthopedic infection by exploring its role in reducing bacterial pathogenesis and enhancing the innate immune response

Lauren Springer
Lauren.Springer@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Summer 2018
Thesis Advisor: Christopher Snyder, PhD
Project: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) establishes lifelong infection through viral latency and persistence in mucosal tissues, but the mechanisms are not well understood. I am investigating the role of specialized pro-resolving lipid mediators, which modulate tissue homeostasis, on CMV persistence in mucosal tissue, particularly focusing on the nasal mucosa. 

Zachary Walter
Zachary.Walter@students.jefferson.edu

Matriculation Term: Fall 2020
Thesis Advisor: Holly Ramage, PhD
Project: TBA