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2020-21

Immunology Trainees supported by our National Institutes of Health Training Grant T32 AI 0602573 "Training in Immunology Research" for the year Sept. 1, 2020 through Aug. 31, 2021.

NIH Training Grant Fellow: Morgan Dragan

Morgan DraganMorgan Dragan is a PhD candidate in Dr. Xing Dai's lab in the Department of Biological Chemistry. She earned her B.S. in Molecular Biology from UC San Diego where she worked on generating transgenic zebrafish models. Prior to starting at UC Irvine for her doctoral degree, Morgan worked in biotech and in Dr. Alan Saltiel's lab at UC San Diego.

Morgan's research focuses on understanding the molecular and cellular regulation of keratinocyte-immune cells cross talk in murine skin during homeostasis and after damage or inflammation. Currently, she is working on understanding  how the keratinocyte-expressed transcription factor, Ovol1, can regulate neutrophil recruitment to the skin.

Publications

  1. Skorobogatko, Y., Dragan, M., Cordon, C., Reilly, S., Hung, C., Xia, W., Zhao, P., Wallace, M., Lackey, D., Chen, X., Osborn, O., Bogner-Strauss, J., Theodorescu, D., Metallo, C., Olefsky, J. and Saltiel, A. (2018). RalA controls glucose homeostasis by regulating glucose uptake in brown fat. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(30), pp.7819-7824.
  2. Haensel, D., Jin, S., Sun, P., Cinco, R., Dragan, M., Nguyen, Q., Cang, Z., Gong, Y., Vu, R., MacLean AL., Kessenbrock, K., Gratton, E., Nie, Q., and Dai, X. (2020). Defining Epidermal Basal Cell States during Skin Homeostasis and Wound Healing Using Single-Cell Transcriptomics. Cell Reports, 30(11), 3932-3947.e6.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2020.02.091
  3. Greenberg, E. N., Marshall, M. E., Jin, S., Venkatesh, S., Dragan, M., Tsoi, LC, Gudjonsson, JE., Nie, Q., Takahashi, JS., and Andersen, B. (2020). Circadian control of interferon-sensitive gene expression in murine skin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 117(11), 5761–5771. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915773117
  4. Sun, P., Vu, R., Dragan, M., Haensel, D., Gutierrez, G., Nguyen, Q., Greenberg, E., Chen, Z., Wu, J., Atwood, S., Pearlman, E., Shi, Y., Han, W., Kessenbrock, K., and Dai, X. (2020). OVOL1 Regulates Psoriasis-Like Skin Inflammation and Epidermal Hyperplasia. J. Invest. Dermatology, S0022-202X(20)32392-7. https://doi: 10.1016/j.jid.2020.10.025
  5. Dragan, M., Sun, P., Chen, Z., Ma, X., Vu, R., Shi, Y., Villalta, S. A., & Dai, X. (2021). Epidermis-intrinsic transcription factor Ovol1 coordinately regulates barrier maintenance and neutrophil accumulation in psoriasis-like inflammation. The Journal of investigative dermatology, S0022-202X(21)02089-3. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jid.2021.08.397

 Honors and Awards

  • ARCS Foundation Scholar award 2019-2021
  • NSF-Simons Center for Multiscale Research Graduate Fellow 2019-2021
Morgan Dragan

NIH Training Grant Fellow: Hew Yeng (Betty)

Betty LaiBetty (Hew Yeng) Lai (Angela Fleischman lab). Ms. Lai’s project was to examine the role of IL-10R signaling in chronic inflammation in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN). The JAK2 V617F mutation is the most prevalent driver mutation in MPN that is acquired in HSCs, MPN patients have high level of TNF-a due to defects in the Interleukin 10 (IL-10) signaling pathway to dampen TNF-a productions in monocytes. Using knock-in JAK2 mice with this point mutation, they found that there is a significant increase of JAK2 V617F HSCs in the anti-IL-10R treatment group compared to the untreated group. These findings were published in Blood Advances, 2019. Betty earned her PhD in August 2021 and is an Assistant Professor at Riverside City College.

Publications:

  1. Ramanathan G, Craver-Hoover B, Arechavala RJ, Herman DA, Chen JH, Lai HY, Renusch SR, Kleinman MT, Fleischman AG. E-Cigarette Exposure Decreases Bone Marrow Hematopoietic Progenitor Cells. Cancers (Basel), 2020; 12(8):2292.
  2. Craver BM, Ramanathan G, Hoang S, Chang X, Mendez Luque LF, Brooks S, Lai HY, Fleischman AG. N-acetylcysteine inhibits thrombosis in a murine model of myeloproliferative neoplasm. Blood Adv., 2020; 4(2):312-321.
  3. Lai HY, Brooks SA, Craver BM, Morse SJ, Nguyen TK, Haghighi N, Garbati MR, Fleischman AG. Defective Negative Regulation of Toll-like Receptor Signaling Contributes to Excessive TNF-α Production in Myeloproliferative Neoplasm. Blood Advance, 2019; 3(2):122-131.
  4. Brooks SA, Kim DM, Morse SJ, Nguyen QH, Craver BM, Lai HY, Fleischman AG. Upregulation of endogenous thrombopoietin receptor (MPL) with in vivo passage of calreticulin (CALR) mutant Ba/F3 cells, highlighting MPL as the requisite cytokine receptor for CALR mediated transformation. Leukemia Research, 2019; 82:11-14.
  5. Brooks SA, Luty SB, Lai HY, Morse SJ, Royer L, Agarwal A, Druker BJ, Fleischman AG JAK2V617I results in cytokine hypersensitivity without causing an overt myeloproliferative disorder in a mouse model. Experimental Hematology, 2016; 44(1):24-9.
Hew Yeng (Betty) Lai

NIH Training Grant Fellow: Gema Olivarria

Gema OlivarriaGema Olivarria is a PhD student in Dr. Tom Lane’s lab in the department of Neurobiology & Behavior. She graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2012 with a B.S. in Biopsychology and a minor in Spanish. Gema’s current research focuses on examining the contribution of neutrophils to axonal demyelination following infection with a neuroadapted murine Coronavirus in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS). In clinical studies of MS patients, increases in neutrophil count and neutrophil chemoattractants, CXCL1 and CXCL5, have been correlated with increases in clinical disability and demyelinating-lesion formation. Prior to disease onset neutrophils enable permeability of the blood-brain-barrier (BBB) and subsequent infiltration of the central nervous system (CNS) by leukocyte populations. However, whether neutrophils only contribute to disease by mediating BBB permeability or are involved in direct lesion formation by contributing to demyelination and axonal damage remains unclear. Previous research in Dr. Lane’s lab has shown that sustained infiltration of neutrophils via CNS overexpression of CXCL1 leads to increases in demyelination. Gema’s research aims to analyze how neutrophils and their effector functions mediate this increase in demyelination.

Additionally, Gema has also worked on characterizing the effects of SARS-CoV-2 on the CNS using the transgenic k18-hACE2 mouse model. Viral infiltration of the CNS results in a rapid immune response comprised of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines primarily secreted by CNS resident cells, including microglia and astrocytes. Her project aimed to characterize the inflammatory response of the CNS to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the role of microglia in mediating control of viral replication and the subsequent immune response.

Publications

  1. Olivarria, G.M., Cheng Y., Furman S., Pachow C., Burns M.S., Edwards R.A., Yong W.,    Hoshfield L., Smith-Geater C., Meramontes R., Manlapaz C., Teijaro J.R., Thompson L., Green K.N., Lane T.E. (2021). Microglia do not restrict SARS-CoV-2 replication following infection of the central nervous system of K18-hACE2 transgenic mice. In Preparation.
  2. Olivaria, G.M., Lane, T.E. (2021). Evaluating the role of chemokines and chemokine receptors involved in coronavirus infection. Expert Review of Clinical Immunology. In Review.
  3. Ploense K.L., Vieira P., Bubalo L., Olivarria G., Carr A.E., Szumlinski K.K., Kippin T.E. (2018) Contributions of prolonged contingent and non-contingent cocaine exposure to escalation of cocaine intake and glutamatergic gene expression. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 235(5):1347-1359.

Honors & Awards

  • NIH T32 Training in Immunology Research Grant, 2020-2021
  • CWRU North Coast Conference on Precision Medicine Travel Award, 2019
  • UCI Minority Serving Institution Enhancement (MSIE) Award, 2019-2021
  • UCI Diversity Recruitment Fellowship, 2019-2020
  • CSU San Marcos California Institute for Regenerative Medicine Bridges to Stem Cell Research Fellow, 2018
Gema Olivarria

2018-19

Immunology Trainees supported by our National Institutes of Health Training Grant T32 AI 0602573 "Training in Immunology Research" for the year Sept. 1, 2018 through Aug. 31, 2019.

NIH Training Grant Fellow: Lee-or Herzog

Lee-or HerzogLee-or has a profound interest in immune-oncology research and signaling pathways in B cells and lymphocyte malignancies specifically. As a medical projects management officer in Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMOD), Lee-or managed and coordinated biomedical projects in a national scale, as well as regulatory affairs and professional medical writing. Lee-or completed his B.Sc. (Hebrew university) and M.Sc. degree (Tel Aviv university) during his military service, where he learned: (1) Critical skills needed to successfully manage biological projects; (2) Strict regulatory standards that the biomedical industry is obligated to follow; (3) Developed leadership and social skills. He did his M.Sc. thesis in Dr. Zvi Fishelson’s immunology/cancer laboratory, where he got invaluable experience - investigating the complement immune system function and mechanisms by which cancer cells evade it.

Lee-or decided to focus his research on non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) – two of the most common adult blood cancers. After gaining valuable experience in project management, regulatory affairs and quality assurance in the Israeli biomedical industry, he joined Dr. David Fruman’s molecular signaling laboratory at UCI for his doctoral studies. His ultimate goal is to define essential signaling components in B cells’ development and NHL.

The mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a ubiquitous kinase that forms two complexes, mTORC1 and mTORC2, with distinct substrates. mTORC1 substrates include S6 kinases (S6Ks) and eIF4E-binding proteins (4E-BPs). 4E-BPs phosphorylation releases their inhibition of eIF4E (eukaryotic initiation factor 4E), enabling it to bind eIF4G1 to form the eIF4F translation initiation complex that binds to 5’ cap of certain mRNAs. Dr. Fruman’s lab has shown that: u Raptor (main mTORC1 component) is required for B cell proliferation and class switch recombination. v 4E-BP-eIF4E axis controls both growth and proliferation of lymphocytes, by increasing cap-dependent translation. w eIF4F is a key effector of mTORC1 in signals that drive AID expression and antibody CSR. Nevertheless, a broad knowledge gap exists about eIF4F components function in B-cells’ development and function.

eIF4F complex includes the cap-binding protein eIF4E, the scaffolding protein eIF4G1 and the RNA helicase eIF4A. Directly targeting eIF4F holds great promise to circumvent mTOR inhibitors resistance mechanisms. Hence, Lee-or’s research focus is on B cells’ reliance on cap-dependent translation (facilitated by mTOR/4E-BP/eIF4E axis) to perform their functions and proliferate. Preliminary data provide evidence that SBI-756 (a novel eIF4F inhibitor) inhibits survival in B-ALL and B lymphoma cells at concentrations that spare T cells, NK cells or monocytes. SBI-756 reduces cap-dependent translation without altering mTORC1 activity. Also, SBI-756 has potent pro-apoptotic activity on mature B cells from mice and humans. These findings support the central hypothesis that eIF4E:eIF4G1 interaction is essential for proliferation and survival of normal B cells. Using conditional knockout mice, he is currently testing the impact of disrupting the interaction of two eIF4F components, eIF4E and eIF4G1, in normal lymphocytes.

Lee-or is currently a Clinical Research Scientist at Biosense Webster.

Publications

  1. Moskovich O., Herzog L., Ehrlich M., and Fishelson Z. (2012). Caveolin-1 and Dynamin-2 Are Essential for Removal of the Complement C5b-9 Complex via Endocytosis. J. Biol. Chem. 287:,19904.
  2. Herzog L. (2017). Cancer, kill yourself! UCI GPS-BIOMED Elevator Pitch Competition, Irvine, CA.
  3. Lee J.S., Roberts A., Juarez D., Vo T.T., Bhatt S., Herzog L., et al. (2018). Statins enhance efficacy of venetoclax in blood cancers. Sci. Transl. Med.10: eaaq1240.
  4. Gotesman M., Vo T.T., Herzog L., Mallya S., Tasian S.K., Konopleva M. and Fruman D.A. (2018). mTOR Inhibition Enhances Efficacy of Dasatinib in ABL1-rearranged Ph-like B-ALL. Oncotarget. 9: 6562-6571.
  5. Herzog L., Nguyen N., Chiu H., Ronai Z.A. and Fruman D.A. (2018). Sensitization of DLBCL Cells to Venetoclax by Targeting the Translation Initiation Complex. AACR Conference. Chicago, IL.

Honors

  • 2010-2011 - Lod Valley Municipality Scholarship for Academic Excellence. Ganot, Israel
  • 2012 - Graduation with M.Sc. degree as Magna cum Laude. Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
  • 2017 - The Art of Research Award. The Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCI, CA
  • 2017 - GPS-BIOMED's Elevator Pitch Competition. UCI GPS-BIOMED, UCI, CA
  • 2018 - Associated Graduate Students symposium, UCI, CA
  • 2018 - Diverse Educational Community & Doctoral Experience (DECADE) award, UCI, CA
  • 2018 - NIH T32 Immunology Training Grant Trainee
Lee-or Herzog

NIH Training Grant Fellow: Jenna Kastenschmidt

Jenna KastenschmidtJenna Kastenschmidt is a PhD student in Dr. Armando Villalta’s lab in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics. She earned her B.S in Human Biology from Minnesota State University, Mankato in 2010. Before starting her doctoral training, Jenna work at several biotech companies as a study technician and quality auditor.

Jenna’s overarching research interests are to understand the immune systems role in regulating tissue repair responses and how these processes promote regeneration in skeletal muscle. Using the mdx mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, she is currently investing how a recently described subset of lymphocytes, known as group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s), regulate type 2 immunity and regenerative responses in dystrophic muscle.

Jenna is currently a Research Specialist in Lisa Wagar's lab at UC Irvine.

Publications

  1. Kastenschmidt J.M., Avetyan I., Armando Villalta S. (2018) Characterization of the Inflammatory Response in Dystrophic Muscle Using Flow Cytometry. In: Bernardini C. (eds) Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1687. Humana Press, New York, NY
  2. Catalan-Dibene, Jovani, Monica I. Vazquez, Van Phi Luu, Sean-Paul Nuccio, Alborz Karimzadeh, Jenna M. Kastenschmidt, S. Armando Villalta, et al. “Identification of IL-40, a Novel B Cell–Associated Cytokine.” The Journal of Immunology, 2017, ji1700534. doi:10.4049/jimmunol.1700534.

Honors

Undergraduate:

  • Mentored Academic Experience (MAX) Scholarship for Diversity Recipient 2008-2010
  • Amgen Summer Scholar, UC San Diego, Summer 2009
  • Frank G. Brooks Award (Oral Presentation) Beta Beta Beta National Biological Honor Society, 2009
  • Undergraduate Research Conference Foundation Grant, Minnesota State University – Mankato, 2008
  • Foundation Research Scholarship, Beta Beta Beta National Biological Honor Society, 2008
  • Minnesota State University – Mankato: Biology Department Research Grant, 2007

Graduate:

  • Ray Owen Poster Award (The American Association of Immunologists), Midwinter Conference of Immunologists, 2017
Jenna Kastenschmidt

NIH Training Grant Fellow: Erika Varady

Erika VaradayErika earned a B.S in Biology at the University of California-Riverside (UCR) in 2016. During her undergraduate years, she volunteered in four different research laboratories, studying plant pathology, immunobiology, and entomology and neuroscience. Her UCR honors program thesis project focused on investigating the genetic diversity of microsatellites, tandem repeats of DNA, in the citrus mold Penicillium digitatum. She later developed a passion for immunology by conducting research on type I diabetes during a summer internship at the Harvard Medical School affiliate Joslin Diabetes Center. There, her goal was to differentiate T cell progenitors into regulatory T cells in vitro for clinical use.

After her undergraduate studies, Erika joined a graduate program at the University of California-Irvine. She is pursuing her PhD in a laboratory led by Dr. Matthew Inlay who focuses on hematopoiesis.

Erika’s project studies a rare autoimmune disease called Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP). One possible method of treatment for ITP is bone marrow transplantation which comprises of eliminating out the autoreactive immune cells and replacing them with a healthy immune system from transplanted hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). However, this therapy can be risky and ineffective as well. To alleviate this issue, Erika uses different drugs to increase an important chemotactic receptor on HSCs called CXCR4. This receptor allows HSCs to engraft the bone marrow niche to create the immune system. Erika will treat her novel ITP mouse model with the improved bone marrow transplantation method.

Erika Varady is currently a Cancer Immunotherapy Scientist at Fate Therapeutics.

Publications

  1. Erik Romero, Brittany Nguyen, Juan Sanabria, Erika Varady, I-Chieh Wang and Thomas Hellman Morton “Two Faces of Dimethoxyalkanes: Steric Repulsion and Hyperconjugative Stabilization” University of California, Riverside Undergraduate Research Journal, (2014): Volume VIII page 57.
  2. Sivanandam, Venkatesh, Erika Varady, and A. L. N. Rao. "Heterologous replicase driven 3′ end repair of Cucumber mosaic virus satellite RNA." Virology478 (2015): 18-26.
  3. Ganguly, A., Pang, L., Duong, V. K., Lee, A., Schoniger, H., Varady, E., & Dahanukar, A. (2017). A molecular and cellular context-dependent role for Ir76b in detection of amino acid taste. Cell reports, 18(3), 737-750.
  4. Karimzadeh, A., Scarfone, V. M., Varady, E., Chao, C., Grathwohl, K., Fathman, J. W., ... & Inlay, M. A. (2018). The CD11a and Endothelial Protein C Receptor Marker Combination Simplifies and Improves the Purification of Mouse Hematopoietic Stem Cells. Stem cells translational medicine, 7(6), 468-476.

Honors and Awards

  • 2018   NIH T32 Immunology Research Training Program, UC Irvine
Erika Varady

2016-17

Immunology Trainees supported by our National Institutes of Health Training Grant T32 AI 0602573 "Training in Immunology Research" for the year Sept. 1, 2016 through Aug. 31, 2017.

NIH Training Grant Fellow: Evelyn Hoover

Evelyn HooverEvelyn Hoover is an MD/PhD candidate in the Lodoen Lab in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at UC Irvine. She received her BS in Microbiology from the Texas A&M University in College Station in 2013. Her long term research interests involve deciphering host-microbial interactions, in order to help develop novel therapeutics. Prior to joining the Lodoen lab Evelyn worked in the Raffatellu lab to elucidate how bacterial zinc acquisition systems in the probiotic bacteria Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 help to ameliorate infections with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, a leading cause of foodborne illness worldwide.

Currently, Evelyn is examining how the pathogen Toxoplasma gondii interacts with the host immune system. T. gondii is a widely successful parasite, chronically infecting ~35 percent of the global population. No vaccine or cure exists for the chronic infection. Her project currently has two major fronts: first to examine how the host defends against vascular injury and second to understand how the immune landscape differs between organs during infection with T. gondii.

Publications

  1. Hoose, S. A., Duran, C., Malik, I., Eslamfam, S., Shasserre, S. C., Downing, S. S., Hoover, E. M. et al. Systematic analysis of cell cycle effects of common drugs leads to the discovery of a suppressive interaction between gemfibrozil and fluoxetine. PloS One 7, e36503 (2012).
  2. Hoose, S. A., Rawlings, J. A., Kelly, M. M., Leitch, M. C., Ababneh, Q. O., Robles, J. P., Taylor, D., Hoover, E. M. et al. A systematic analysis of cell cycle regulators in yeast reveals that most factors act independently of cell size to control initiation of division. PLoS Genetics 8, e1002590 (2012).

Honors and Awards

  • 2016- NIH Immunology Research Training Program Grant T32 AI 60573
  • 2013- Graduated Magna Cum Laude from Texas A&M University
  • 2013- Undergraduate Research Fellow, Texas A&M University
  • 2013- University and Foundation Honors, Texas A&M University
  • 2012- DAAD RISE Scholarship, Germany
  • 2009-2013- National Hispanic Merit Scholarship, Texas A&M University
 
Evelyn Hoover

NIH Training Grant Fellow: Christine Schneider

Christine Schneider

Christine earned her B.S. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Oregon State University in 2011. During her undergraduate studies, she worked as a research assistant at SIGA technologies, an antiviral discovery company in Corvallis, Oregon, where she helped determine the mechanism of action of two drugs targeting Dengue virus. After graduation, she spent two and a half years working at Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute (LRRI). At LRRI, Christine worked on numerous projects characterizing the immune response to infectious agents (including BSL-2 and BSL-3 agents), chemicals, and radiation.

Having worked with both pathogen biology and the host immune response, Christine joined Melissa Lodoen’s lab at UCI to pursue her Ph.D. The Lodoen lab studies the intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii and how it interacts with the mouse and human immune system.

Toxoplasma gondii is an eukaryotic parasite with worldwide distribution and is estimated to infect one third of the global population. As a food borne pathogen, the initial site of T. gondii infection is the intestine, after which the parasite enters the circulation and rapidly disseminates to a variety of organs in the body, with a preference for the central nervous system and skeletal muscle. In individuals with a normal immune system, the parasite transitions into dormancy, forming tissue cysts that persist for the lifetime of the host. However, if the host becomes immune suppressed—due to factors like AIDS, a solid organ transplant, or high-dose chemotherapy—parasites begin replicating again, causing substantial nervous system damage and symptoms like seizure, stroke, and even death. Numerous groups have highlighted the importance of T cells and continuous production of IFN-ϒ as key factors to maintaining immune control. More recent evidence suggests myeloid cells in the CNS are also important for controlling the chronic infection, although the precise role of these cells in immune defense is not well understood. Therefore, Christine has been studying the trafficking to and function of myeloid cells during chronic infection in the brain, contrasting that with the role they play in acute infection. In addition, she is also investigating the role of myeloid cells during chronic reactivation, a stage for which we have far less information.  Christine’s work may help us better understand which aspects of the immune system can be modified to reduce or prevent parasite damage for individuals most at risk for reactivation.

Christine is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the NIH Rocky Mountain Laboratory.

Publications

  1. Byrd CM, Dai D, Grosenbach DW, Berhanu A, Jones KF, Cardwell KB, Schneider C, Wineinger KA, Page JM, Harver C, Stavale E, Tyavanagimatt S, Stone MA, Bartenschlager R, Scaturro P, Hruby DE, Jordan R. (2013). "A novel inhibitor of dengue virus replication that targets the capsid protein." Antimicrob Agents Chemother 57(1): 15-25.
  2. Byrd CM, Grosenbach DW, Berhanu A, Dai D, Jones KF, Cardwell KB, Schneider C, Yang G, Tyavanagimatt S, Harver C, Wineinger KA, Page J, Stavale E, Stone MA, Fuller KP, Lovejoy C, Leeds JM, Hruby DE, Jordan R. (2013). "Novel benzoxazole inhibitor of dengue virus replication that targets the NS3 helicase." Antimicrob Agents Chemother 57(4): 1902-1912
  3. Alana F. Ogata, Joshua M. Edgar, Sudipta Majumdar, Jeffrey S. Briggs, Shae V. Patterson, Ming X. Tan, Stephan T. Kudlacek, Christine A. Schneider, Gregory A. Weiss, and Reginald M. Penner (2017). “Virus-enabled biosensor for human albumin.” Analytical Chemistry 89(2): 1373-1381.

Honors and Awards

  • 2016 - NIH NIAID T32 Immunology Research Training Program (2T32 AI 60573-11), UC Irvine
  • 2014 - Francisco J. Ayala Fellowship, UC, Irvine
  • 2009 - Janet Richens Wiesner University Honors Scholarship for undergraduate women in science. Oregon State University, scholarship received by nomination for outstanding scientific potential
  • 2009 - Waldo Cummings Outstanding Student Award, Oregon State University, awarded for distinguished service and scholarship among sophomore students
  • 2008 - Waldo Cummings Outstanding Student Award, Oregon State University, honorable mention amongst freshman students
Christine Schneider

NIH Training Grant Fellow: Ankita Shukla

Ankita ShuklaAnkita Shukla is a proud Anteater! She earned her B.S. in Developmental and Cell Biology and a B.A. in Anthropology at the UC Irvine in 2012.  Ankita conducted clinical research in Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder with Dr. Sharon Wigal through the Child Development Center at UC Irvine. Dr. Wigal later invited her to co-author a drug review1. Ankita also conducted bench research in Dr. Christopher Hughes’ angiogenesis lab. Here, she studied the role of VEGF signaling in blood vessel formation2. Before returning to UCI to pursue her graduate studies, she worked as a research associate in Dr. Daniel Martínez’s lab at Pomona College.  Her primary focus was studying the migration of stem cells in chimeric hydra, which are rapidly able to regenerate all parts of their body.

Ankita’s love for the collaborative environment brought her back to UC Irvine.  As a part of Dr. Matthew Inlay’s lab in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, she began to understand the embryonic origins of Hematopoietic Stem Cells (HSCs) in transgenic mouse models. Her hematopoiesis project sparked her interest in the developmental origins of tissue-resident immune populations, specifically the CNS-resident macrophages called microglia. Though the embryonic origins of microglia were her original focus, her project evolved to studying the role of immune system in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). With close guidance from Dr. Inlay, Ankita independently developed a thesis project which focuses on distinguishing between brain-resident microglia and peripheral macrophages which infiltrate the brain in AD, which remains an important question in the field.

Her project utilizes a novel marker to distinguish between microglia and infiltrating macrophages. The results of this project identify the cells that surround the beta-amyloid (Aß) plaques in AD brains, which has not been possible thus far. She aims to manipulate the expression of the novel marker to reduce peripheral macrophage infiltration. Her data suggests a therapeutic target for alleviating inflammation and, thus, AD pathology. Ankita seeks to confirm her mouse findings in humans. Additionally, Ankita’s findings in AD mouse models may also be insightful in treating other neurodegenerative conditions like Salmonella and Toxoplasma infections as well as Multiple Sclerosis.

Ankita is currently a Research Scientist at Becton, Dickinson and Company.

Publications

  1. Wigal, S. B., Raja, P., Shukla, A. "An update on lisdexamfetamine dimesylate for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder." Expert opinion on pharmacotherapy 14.1 (2013): 137-145.
  2. Shukla A. Effect of alk1 on VEGF/VEGR2 expression in endothelial cells. Journal of Undergraduate Research 2011-2012. UC Irvine. Online.

Honors and Awards:

  • 2016-2017 -  NIH Immunology Research Training Program grant T32 AI 60573, UC Irvine
  • April 2016 - AGS Research Symposium, UC Irvine- 2016 People’s Choice Winner
Ankita Shukla

2019-20

Immunology Trainees supported by our National Institutes of Health Training Grant T32 AI 0602573 "Training in Immunology Research" for the year Sept. 1, 2019 through Aug. 31, 2020.

NIH Training Grant Fellow: Sloan Lewis

Sloan LewisSloan Lewis is a PhD student in Dr. Ilhem Messaoudi’s lab in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. She graduated with a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2016. Sloan’s research focuses on innate immunity, both peripheral and tissue, where she has been characterizing the effects of alcohol drinking on monocyte and macrophage populations in rhesus macaques. She is interested in uncovering alcohol-induced functional defects in these cells and the transcriptomic/epigenomic mechanisms behind them. She has also been working on SARS-CoV-2 where she assessed the impact of aging on peripheral immune responses in patients with severe COVID-19.

Publications

  1. Lewis, S.A., et al. “Chronic ethanol drinking in non-human primates induces inflammatory cathepsin gene expression in alveolar macrophages accompanied by functional defects.” bioRxiv 2021.07.30.454528 (2021)
  2. Lewis, S. A., et al. “Exploratory Extracellular vesicle-bound Mirna Profiling to Identify Candidate Biomarkers of Chronic Alcohol Drinking in Non-Human Primates.” bioRxiv, 2021.07.28.454223(2021)
  3. Sureshchandra, S. and Lewis, S. A., et al. “Single cell profiling and T and B cell repertoires following SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine. “ bioRxiv, 2021.07.14.452381 (2021) 
  4. Lewis, S.A. et al., “Transcriptional, Epigenetic, and Functional Reprogramming of Monocytes From Non-Human Primates Following Chronic Alcohol Drinking,” Frontiers in Immunology, fimmu.2021.724015. (2021)
  5. Lewis, S. A. and Sureshchandra, S., et al. “Longitudinal Analyses Reveal Age-Specific Immune Correlates of COVID-19 Severity.” Accepted Nature Aging. (2021)
  6. Barr, T. and Lewis, S. A., et al. Chronic ethanol consumption alters lamina propria leukocyte response to stimulation in a region-dependent manner. The FASEB Journal fj.201802780R (2019)

Honors and Awards

  • Society for Leukocyte Biology Presidential Award 2021
  • Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Scholar 2019-present
  • UCI Immunology Fair 2nd place Oral Presentation December 2020
  • Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award – F31 2020-present
  • Robert Warner Award for Outstanding Achievement in Nucleic Acid Biochemistry May 2020
Sloan Lewis

NIH Training Grant Fellow: Bridget Ratitong

Bridget RatitongMy dissertation project explores the regulation of IL-1α in immune cells and its role during infection. IL-1α and IL-1β are proinflammatory cytokines involved in many diseases. My project focuses on the regulation of IL-1α in neutrophils, specifically unconventional mechanisms governing the secretion of IL-1α, and the difference between IL-1α regulation in neutrophils and macrophages during fungal and bacterial infections in the corneas. While IL-1β biogenesis, expression, and function is well-characterized in multiple cell types, little is known about IL-1α production, cellular distribution, and regulation.

Importantly, I am also exploring the role IL-1 plays during in vivo infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. My project aims to dissect the regulation of inflammatory response against fungal and bacterial keratitis with the goal of a more targeted treatment for the disease. I was awarded the NIH T32 Immunology training grant for the 2019-2020 academic year and NIH F31 NRSA for 2021-2023.

Publications

  1. Ratitong, B., Marshall, M. & Pearlman, E. β-Glucan-stimulated neutrophil secretion of IL-1α is independent of GSDMD and mediated through extracellular vesicles. Cell Reports 35, 109139 (2021).
  2. Ratitong, B. & Pearlman, E. Pathogenic Aspergillus and Fusarium as important causes of blinding corneal infections — the role of neutrophils in fungal killing, tissue damage and cytokine production. Current Opinion in Microbiology 63, 195–203 (2021).

Honors and Awards

  • Cum Laude Honor for academic achievement at UC San Diego
  • Provost’s Honor for academic achievement at UC San Diego
  • UC Irvine Graduate Dean’s Recruitment Fellowship Award
  • AAI Young Investigator Award at Immunology LA for Best oral presentation 2019
  • AAI Young Investigator Award at UCI Immunology seminar for Best oral presentation2019
  • NIH T32 Immunology training grant 2019-2020
  • NIH NRSA F31 fellowship (funded by the National Eye Institute) 2020-2023
  • UCI School of Medicine Grad Day Best Elevator Talk award 2020
  • AAI Young Investigator Award at Immunology fair, 3rd place Best Poster presentation2020
  • ARCS Foundation, Orange County chapter, Scholar award 2020-2022
Bridget Ratitong

NIH Training Grant Fellow: Erika Varady

Erika VaradayErika earned a B.S in Biology at the University of California-Riverside (UCR) in 2016. During her undergraduate years, she volunteered in four different research laboratories, studying plant pathology, immunobiology, and entomology and neuroscience. Her UCR honors program thesis project focused on investigating the genetic diversity of microsatellites, tandem repeats of DNA, in the citrus mold Penicillium digitatum. She later developed a passion for immunology by conducting research on type I diabetes during a summer internship at the Harvard Medical School affiliate Joslin Diabetes Center. There, her goal was to differentiate T cell progenitors into regulatory T cells in vitro for clinical use.

After her undergraduate studies, Erika joined a graduate program at the University of California-Irvine. She is pursuing her PhD in a laboratory led by Dr. Matthew Inlay who focuses on hematopoiesis.

Erika’s project studies a rare autoimmune disease called Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP). One possible method of treatment for ITP is bone marrow transplantation which comprises of eliminating out the autoreactive immune cells and replacing them with a healthy immune system from transplanted hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). However, this therapy can be risky and ineffective as well. To alleviate this issue, Erika uses different drugs to increase an important chemotactic receptor on HSCs called CXCR4. This receptor allows HSCs to engraft the bone marrow niche to create the immune system. Erika will treat her novel ITP mouse model with the improved bone marrow transplantation method.

Erika Varady is currently a Cancer Immunotherapy Scientist at Fate Therapeutics.

Publications

  1. Erik Romero, Brittany Nguyen, Juan Sanabria, Erika Varady, I-Chieh Wang and Thomas Hellman Morton “Two Faces of Dimethoxyalkanes: Steric Repulsion and Hyperconjugative Stabilization” University of California, Riverside Undergraduate Research Journal, (2014): Volume VIII page 57.
  2. Sivanandam, Venkatesh, Erika Varady, and A. L. N. Rao. "Heterologous replicase driven 3′ end repair of Cucumber mosaic virus satellite RNA." Virology478 (2015): 18-26.
  3. Ganguly, A., Pang, L., Duong, V. K., Lee, A., Schoniger, H., Varady, E., & Dahanukar, A. (2017). A molecular and cellular context-dependent role for Ir76b in detection of amino acid taste. Cell reports, 18(3), 737-750.
  4. Karimzadeh, A., Scarfone, V. M., Varady, E., Chao, C., Grathwohl, K., Fathman, J. W., ... & Inlay, M. A. (2018). The CD11a and Endothelial Protein C Receptor Marker Combination Simplifies and Improves the Purification of Mouse Hematopoietic Stem Cells. Stem cells translational medicine, 7(6), 468-476.

Honors and Awards

  • 2018   NIH T32 Immunology Research Training Program, UC Irvine
Erika Varady

2017-18

Immunology Trainees supported by our National Institutes of Health Training Grant T32 AI 0602573 "Training in Immunology Research" for the year Sept. 1, 2017 through Aug. 31, 2018.

NIH Training Grant Fellow: Katrina Evans

Katrina EvansKatrina Evans earned her Bachelor’s degree at California State University, Fullerton where she worked in Dr. Cuajungco’s lab studying transient receptor potential channels involved in lysosomal storage disease.  After graduating, she earned her high school teaching credential at University of California, Irvine, and taught high school biology in Orange County for four years. Currently, a PhD student in the Lawson Lab, her research is focused on breast cancer brain metastasis. The brain poses a challenge for both metastatic seeding and treatment because it is protected by the blood brain barrier. Katrina is currently using a mouse model and single cell RNA sequencing analysis approaches to investigate interactions between resident glial populations in the brain and metastatic breast cancer cells.

Katrina is currently a Technical Application Scientist at Akoya Biology.

Publications

  1. Parker I, Evans KT, Ellefsen K, Lawson DA, Smith IF. Lattice light sheet imaging of membrane nanotubes between human breast cancer cells in culture and in brain metastases. Scientific Reports. 2017;7:11029. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-11223-y.
  2. Ma D., Hernandez G.A., Lefebvre A.E.Y.T., Alshetaiwi H., Blake K., Dave K.R., Rauf M., Williams J.W., Davis R.T., Evans K.T., Masoud M.Y.G., Lee R., Edwards R.A., Digman M.A., Kessenbrock K.*, Lawson D.A. Patient-derived xenograft culture-transplant system for investigation of human breast cancer metastasis. bioRxiv. (2020) (in press, Commun. Biol.)
  3.  Evans K.T., Blake K., Coburn M.A., Nguyen Q.H., Longworth A., Hernandez G., Oganyan A.K., Orujan D., Edwards R.A., Villalta S.A., Green K.N., Blurton-Jones M., Lawson D.A., Microglia coordinate the anti-tumor immune response to breast cancer brain metastasis (in revision, Nat Cell Biol)
Katrina Evans

NIH Training Grant Fellow: Jenna Kastenschmidt

Jenna KastenschmidtJenna Kastenschmidt is a PhD student in Dr. Armando Villalta’s lab in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics. She earned her B.S in Human Biology from Minnesota State University, Mankato in 2010. Before starting her doctoral training, Jenna work at several biotech companies as a study technician and quality auditor.

Jenna’s overarching research interests are to understand the immune systems role in regulating tissue repair responses and how these processes promote regeneration in skeletal muscle. Using the mdx mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, she is currently investing how a recently described subset of lymphocytes, known as group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s), regulate type 2 immunity and regenerative responses in dystrophic muscle.

Jenna is currently a Research Specialist in Lisa Wagar's lab at UC Irvine.

Publications

  1. Kastenschmidt J.M., Avetyan I., Armando Villalta S. (2018) Characterization of the Inflammatory Response in Dystrophic Muscle Using Flow Cytometry. In: Bernardini C. (eds) Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1687. Humana Press, New York, NY
  2. Catalan-Dibene, Jovani, Monica I. Vazquez, Van Phi Luu, Sean-Paul Nuccio, Alborz Karimzadeh, Jenna M. Kastenschmidt, S. Armando Villalta, et al. “Identification of IL-40, a Novel B Cell–Associated Cytokine.” The Journal of Immunology, 2017, ji1700534. doi:10.4049/jimmunol.1700534.

Honors

Undergraduate:

  • Mentored Academic Experience (MAX) Scholarship for Diversity Recipient 2008-2010
  • Amgen Summer Scholar, UC San Diego, Summer 2009
  • Frank G. Brooks Award (Oral Presentation) Beta Beta Beta National Biological Honor Society, 2009
  • Undergraduate Research Conference Foundation Grant, Minnesota State University – Mankato, 2008
  • Foundation Research Scholarship, Beta Beta Beta National Biological Honor Society, 2008
  • Minnesota State University – Mankato: Biology Department Research Grant, 2007

Graduate:

  • Ray Owen Poster Award (The American Association of Immunologists), Midwinter Conference of Immunologists, 2017
Jenna Kastenschmidt

NIH Training Grant Fellow: William Pandori

Willliam PandoriWilliam earned his B.S. in Molecular Biology and B.A. in Biological Anthropology from the University of California, San Diego in 2014. During his undergraduate studies, he worked in several labs both at UC San Diego and at Santa Clara University. There he studied drug resistant strains of gonorrhea, dysregulated brain cellular metabolism in Lesh-Nyhan disease, and the unique brain architecture of individuals with William’s Syndrome. After graduation, William spent a year working in the lab of Dr. David Fruman at UC Irvine. There he studied the mechanisms of chemotherapy resistance in patient-derived B-Cell Leukemia cell lines.

After joining UCI’s graduate program, William decided to pursue his growing interest in immunology and joined Dr. Melissa Lodoen’s lab for his Ph.D. The Lodoen lab studies the highly prevalent intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii and how it interacts with the immune system.

Monocytes contribute to host defense against Toxoplasma gondii infection by initiating a robust inflammatory response, which is partially mediated by IL-1β release. IL-1β is an incredibly powerful proinflammatory cytokine, and its dysregulation has been shown to be a major driving factor behind the development of diseases like arthritis, diabetes and Alzheimer’s.  However, the mechanisms by which IL-1β is produced by and released from human monocytes, and particularly T. gondii-infected monocytes, are only partially defined. Therefore, William has focused his research on uncovering the signaling pathways that lead to the production and release of IL-1β in primary human monocytes infected with T. gondii. William’s research will hopefully expand our knowledge of how innate immune cells induce and regulate inflammation and potentially affect how we treat pro-inflammatory diseases.

William is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology.

Publications

  1. Hess, David, Abel Wu, Daniel Golparian, Sarah Esmaili, Will Pandori, Emilee Sena, Jeffrey D. Klausner, Pennan Barry, Magnus Unemo, and Mark Pandori. "Genome sequencing of a Neisseria gonorrhoeae isolate of a successful international clone with decreased susceptibility and resistance to extended-spectrum cephalosporins." Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy 56, no. 11 (2012): 5633-5641.
  2. Guibinga, Ghiabe-Henri, Fiona Murray, Nikki Barron, William Pandori, and Gorjan Hrustanovic. "Deficiency of the purine metabolic gene HPRT dysregulates microRNA-17 family cluster and guanine-based cellular functions: a role for EPAC in Lesch-Nyhan syndrome." Human molecular genetics 22, no. 22 (2013): 4502-4515.
  3. Guibinga, Ghiabe-Henri, Nikki Barron, and William Pandori. "Striatal neurodevelopment is dysregulated in purine metabolism deficiency and impacts DARPP-32, BDNF/TrkB expression and signaling: new insights on the molecular and cellular basis of Lesch-Nyhan syndrome." PloS one 9, no. 5 (2014): e96575.
  4. Vo, Thanh-Trang T., Jong-Hoon S. Lee, Duc Nguyen, Brandon Lui, William Pandori, Andrew Khaw, Sharmila Mallya and David Fruman. "mTORC1 Inhibition Induces Resistance to Methotrexate and 6-Mercaptopurine in Ph+ and Ph-like B-ALL." Molecular Cancer Therapeutics (2017): molcanther-0024.
  5. Gov, Lanny., Christine A. Schneider, Tatiane S. Lima, William Pandori and Melissa B. Lodoen. “NLRP3 And Potassium Efflux Drive Rapid IL-1β Release from Primary Human Monocytes DuringToxoplasma GondiiInfection.” The Journal of Immunology, vol. 199, no. 8, 2017, pp. 2855–2864., doi:10.4049/jimmunol.1700245.

Honors and Awards

  • 2017 - NIH NIAID T32 Immunology Research Training Program (5T32AI060573-12), UC Irvine
William Pandori

NIH Immunology Training Grant Application Process

We have 3 pre-doctoral slots available as part of our UC Irvine NIH Immunology Research Training Grant (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases T32 AI 060573 - http://www.niaid.nih.gov).  These pre-doctoral training slots are assigned through a highly competitive process every year.  Thanks to the School of Graduate Studies, we can also offer a 4th training slot.  Although this is not officially part of the T32, it will provide the same level of support.

Pre-doctoral Immunology students are eligible after they have passed their first-year qualifying exam (or equivalent); therefore, 2nd year-onwards immunology students are eligible for this support.  We also invite current awardees to re-apply for a second year of support. Note that only US Citizens and US Permanent Residents are eligible under this grant.

Each nomination package should include:

  1. Letter of nomination from mentor (immunology faculty PI). 1-2 pages
  2. NIH biosketch (max 3 pages) plus graduate transcripts (including GRE scores).
  3. Two-page description of Aims and Experimental design of the student's thesis work that is ongoing and predicted for the next year that is prepared by the student.

Please submit each package as a single PDF, which you can submit to Rebecca Taylor (taylorrr@uci.edu), UC Irvine Institute for Immunology administrative office, Hewitt Hall 3rd floor. All applications will be evaluated by the IFI steering committee. A call for applications is sent out each August and the successful applicants will be notified of support by September 1 of the training year.  Support will be retroactive to September 1.  Should you have any questions, please contact Rebecca Taylor at the Institute for Immunology (taylorrr@uci.edu).

Students should also consider applying for an individual F31 or F32 /National Research Scholar Award: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-11-113.html.

The School of Graduate Studies offers a financial incentive to apply for an F-series individual award: http://www.som.uci.edu/graduate-studies/student-support/individual-fellowship-application-incentive.asp

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