NIAID New Innovators 2023-2024 Awardees

Kimberly M. Alonge, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Joint Department of Medicine, University of Washington

Project Title: Maternal Immune Activation Remodeling of Offspring Glycosaminoglycan Sulfation Patterns During Neurodevelopment

Award Year: 2023

Dr. Kimberly Alonge is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Washington and Program Director for Matrix Biology at the UW Medicine Diabetes Institute.

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Blake Billmyre, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics and Department of Infectious Diseases, University of Georgia

Project Title: Evolution of Heat Tolerance and Drug Resistance in Cryptococcus

Award Year: 2024

Blake Billmyre’s lab uses high-throughput genetic and genomic approaches to understand the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans. The Billmyre lab is interested in both evolution of virulence and drug resistance.

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 Daniel Blanco-Melo, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Herbold Computational Biology Program, Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center 

Project Title: Deciphering Long-Term Virus Evolution Through the Reconstruction of Past Viral Genomes

Award Year: 2023

Dr. Daniel Blanco-Melo is an Assistant Professor in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. He earned his B.S. from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and his Ph.D. from Rockefeller University.

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Malika Aid Boudries, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Center for Virology and Vaccine Research, Harvard School of Medicine

Project Title: Host-Dependent Mechanisms that Guide the Longitudinal Dynamic of Sites of SIV Integration

Award Year: 2024

Dr. Boudries is an Assistant Professor in Medicine at the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research CVVR. The Boudries research group, bioinformatics and computational genomics and epigenetics laboratory (BCGE) , focuses on developing and implementing computational pipelines and methods to investigate the host-virus interaction interface, early host factors impeding HIV integration and persistence...

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Astra S. Bryant, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Neurobiology & Biophysics, University of Washington

Project Title: Dissecting the Thermosensory Biology of Soil-Transmitted Parasitic Nematodes

Award Year: 2024

Dr. Astra Bryant is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurobiology & Biophysics at the University of Washington. She received in B.A. in Biology from Bryn Mawr College followed by a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Stanford University.

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David R. Collins, Ph.D.

Ragon Institute of Mass General Brigham, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University

Project Title: Modulating T Cell Activation to Combat HIV Persistence

Award Year: 2024

Dr. Collins' research investigates molecular regulation of antigen-specific cellular immune function and dysfunction in human disease, with a particular focus on informing HIV cure strategies.

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Yanxiang Deng, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

Project Title: High-Spatial-Resolution Multi-Omics Sequencing of Brain Lesions in Multiple Sclerosis

Award Year: 2023

Dr. Yanxiang Deng earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), where he developed microfluidic platforms for high-throughput single-cell mechanotyping and intracellular delivery. He then completed postdoctoral training in Biomedical Engineering at Yale University, focusing on novel technologies for spatially resolved omics profiling.

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Julia L. M. Dunn, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, University of Colorado

Project Title: Spatial and Temporal Resolution of Eosinophil Specialization in Allergic Microenvironments

Award Year: 2024

Dr. Julia L. M. Dunn earned her B.S. in Biochemistry with a minor in Mathematics at Denison University and her Ph.D. in Immunology at the University of North Carolina. She completed her postdoctoral training in the Rothenberg Lab, where she developed an ex vivo system for studying eosinophil-epithelial interactions in the context of gastrointestinal disease.

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Liraz Galia, Ph.D.

Department of Pathology, Department of Immunology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas

Project Title: Spatial Subcellular Mapping of the Intestinal LncRNAome

Award Year: 2024

Dr. Galia's research focuses on uncovering novel regulatory mechanisms that govern innate immune responses and maintain homeostasis in the intestinal tract. She investigates the complex interplay between microbiome-host interactions, immunometabolism, organelle function, and the molecular pathways that influence intestinal health and disease.

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Ryan Gaudet, Ph.D.

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Columbia University

Project Title: Decoding the Interferome by Mapping Genetic Interactions in Human Tissue

Award Year: 2023

Dr. Ryan Gaudet grew up in Prince Edward Island, Canada’s smallest province. After receiving his B.Sc from the University of Prince Edward Island, he earned his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto for his work in the lab of Scott Gray-Owen studying innate immune recognition.

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Jenna Guthmiller, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Project Title: Shifting Immunodominance of Humoral Immunity Against Influenza Viruses

Award Year: 2023

Dr. Jenna Guthmiller is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Jenna received her Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Centers and completed postdoctoral training in immunology and virology at the University of Chicago.

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Tristan X. Jordan, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology, University of Washington School of Medicine

Project Title: Antiviral Discovery in Microbial Eukaryotes

Award Year: 2024

Dr. Jordan received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago where he worked with Dr. Glenn Randall to understand how viruses rewire cellular metabolism to benefit their replication. He then completed his postdoctoral training in the lab of Dr. Benjamin tenOever (now at NYU Grossman School of Medicine), where his research focused on the cellular pathways essential for SARS-CoV-2 infection.

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Roarke Kamber, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Anatomy and the Bakar Aging Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco

Project Title: Deciphering the Immunogenicity of Cell Death Using Systematic Genetic Tools

Award Year: 2024

Dr. Roarke Kamber is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomy and the Bakar Aging Research Institute at UCSF. He received his B.S. in Biology from Stanford University and his Ph.D. in Biological and Biomedical Sciences from Harvard University, where he studied mechanisms of selective autophagy in Dr. Vladimir Denic’s laboratory.

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Aly A. Khan, Ph.D.

University of Chicago

Project Title: Unraveling the Functional Diversity of B cells in Health and Disease

Award Year: 2023

Dr. Khan leads the Laboratory for Computational Immunology at the University of Chicago. His research models complex immune system dynamics by integrating validated biological knowledge with advanced computational algorithms. This research aims to develop novel diagnostics and therapeutics for cancer and autoimmune diseases.

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Michele LeRoux, Ph.D.

Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri

Project Title: Mining the Phage Playbook to Create a Potent, Generic Phage Therapy

Award Year: 2023

Dr. Michele LeRoux performed her doctoral research at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she studied antagonistic interactions between bacteria. During her postdoctoral training at MIT, she investigated the biological function and molecular mechanisms of bacterial toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems and discovered that a key function of TA systems is to defend bacteria against their viruses, phages.

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Gina Lewin, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Center for Global Health and Diseases, Department of Pathology, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine

Project Title: Defining the Role of Single-Cell Heterogeneity in Bacterial Vaginosis

Award Year: 2024

Dr. Gina Lewin is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Global Health and Diseases and Department of Pathology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. She completed her Ph.D. at University of Wisconsin-Madison under the mentorship of Dr. Cameron Currie, and she competed her postdoctoral training at University of Texas at Austin, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Washington University in St. Louis, primarily under the mentorship of Dr. Marvin Whiteley.

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Chang Liu, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Project Title: Emerging Mechanisms of Viral Gene Regulation From Battles Between Host and SARS-CoV-2

Award Year: 2023

Dr. Chang Liu is an Assistant Professor of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her lab uses a combination of cutting-edge cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) technique with complementary biophysical, biochemical, cellular, genomic, and computational approaches to characterize and identify new host and viral...

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Joni Nikkanen, Ph.D.

Department of Nutritional Sciences & Toxicology at the University of California, Berkeley

Project Title: Decoding the Brain-Liver Axis: Uncovering Mechanisms of Host Defense

Award Year: 2024

Dr. Joni Nikkanen studies how the brain responds to bacterial infections. His work focuses on the neural and molecular mechanisms that coordinate immune responses and sickness behaviors. Based at the University of California, Berkeley, his research bridges neuroscience and immunology to explore mechanisms of host defense.

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Kyla Ost, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Project Title: Dissecting the Impact of Immune Environment on Candida Albicans Pathogenic Potential in the Gut

Award Year: 2023

Dr. Kyla Ost is an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Her lab aims to understand how intestinal immune environment alters the pathogenic potential of commensal fungi.

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Abby Overacre, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Immunology, University of Pittsburgh

Project Title: Dissecting Microbiota-Driven Lymphangiogenesis in Immune Health and Disease

Award Year: 2023

Dr. Overacre is an Assistant Professor within the Department of Immunology at the University of Pittsburgh and a member of the Tumor Microenvironment Center (TMC) at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. She is a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Dale F. Frey Breakthrough Scientist awardee and a recipient of the NIAID New Innovators Award (DP2).

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Hualiang Pi, Ph.D.

Department of Microbial Pathogenesis and Microbial Sciences Institute, Yale University School of Medicine

Project Title: The Molecular Basis of Ferrosome Organelle Biogenesis and Its Impact on Host-Microbe Interactions

Award Year: 2024

Dr. Hualiang earned her Ph.D. in Microbiology with John Helmann at Cornell University and completed her postdoctoral training with Eric Skaar at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. In 2023, she launched her lab at Yale University in the Department of Microbial Pathogenesis and the Microbial Sciences Institute.

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Daniel Puleston, Ph.D.

Precision Immunology Institute & The Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY

Project Title: Exploring Metabolic Governance of Immune Cell Form and Function

Award Year: 2023

Dr. Daniel Puleston obtained his Ph.D. in Immunology at Oxford University under Katja Simon studying mechanisms of memory T cell formation before post-doctoral training in the lab of Erika Pearce at the Max Planck Institute of Immunology in Freiburg, Germany.

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Krithika Rajaram, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

Project Title: Essential Functions of the Mitochondrion in Malaria Parasites

Award Year: 2024

Dr. Krithika Rajaram is a microbiologist interested in the biology of medically important intracellular pathogens. She earned her Ph.D. from Indiana University, where she developed genetic tools to study chlamydial pathogenesis.

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Nathan Reticker-Flynn, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine

Project Title: A Modular Cell Therapy Platform for Controlling Immunological Tolerance

Award Year: 2023

Dr. Nathan Reticker-Flynn is a tumor immunologist and Biomedical Engineer working at the interfaces of cancer metastasis, tumor evolution, adaptive immunity, and immunotherapy. He received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while working in the lab of Dr. Sangeeta Bhatia and performed his postdoctoral studies with Dr. Edgar Engleman at Stanford University.

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Liat Shenhav, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Institute for Systems Genetics, Departments of Microbiology and OBGYN, NYU Grossman School of Medicine 
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University

Project Title: BREATH - Breastfeeding, Early-life Microbiome and Respiratory Health Study

Award Year: 2024

Dr. Liat Shenhav is an Assistant Professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. She specializes in multi-omics approaches and computational modeling to study host-associated microbial ecosystems and their role in health and disease.

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Trevor Sorrells, Ph.D.

Yale University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Project Title: Identification of Mosquito Brain Neurons that Drive Blood-Feeding Behavior

Award Year: 2023

Dr. Trevor Sorrells completed his Ph.D. at the University of California, San Francisco where he pioneered molecular and genomic approaches in non-model yeast species to understand how transcription regulatory networks evolve. As a postdoctoral fellow at Rockefeller University, he discovered a persistent behavioral state in the mosquito Aedes aegypti that sustains their pursuit of humans over time.

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Tyler Starr, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry, University of Utah School of Medicine

Project Title: The Evolutionary Landscape of HIV Broadly Neutralizing Antibody Development

Award Year: 2023

Dr. Tyler Starr is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Utah School of Medicine where his lab studies molecular evolutionary arms races at the host:virus interface, with a particular focus on viral entry glycoproteins and their interactions with host entry receptors and antiviral antibodies.

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Jeannette Tenthorey, Ph.D.

University of California, San Francisco

Project Title: Defining HIV Evolution at the Innate Immune Interface

Award Year: 2024

Dr. Tenthorey is broadly interested in how the innate immune system is built to withstand the evolutionary pressures of many different kinds of viral infections, including HIV.

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Andrew Varble, Ph.D.

University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry

Project Title: Harnessing Broad-Specificity Phage Recombinases for Universal Bacterial Editing Platforms

Award Year: 2024

Dr. Andrew Varble's research career has centered on virus-host interactions. During his undergraduate studies at Rochester Institute of Technology, he investigated the innate immune response to Indiana vesiculovirus.

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José A. Villegas, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago

Project Title: Inducing Off-Pathway Assembly of HIV Gag Polyprotein with Computationally Designed Peptides

Award Year: 2023

Dr. José Villegas earned a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of California Santa Barbara, an MA in Chemistry from Brooklyn College, and Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. His doctoral dissertation was on the computational design of protein-ligand and protein-protein interactions.

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Meng Wu, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri

Project Title: Exploiting the Microbiota-Stromal Cell Axis for Microbiota-Targeted Medicine

Award Year: 2024

Dr. Meng Wu is an Assistant Professor of Molecular Microbiology at Washington University School of Medicine. Her research focuses on the interplay among microbiota, stromal cells, and the immune system in health and disease.

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