NIH Center for Human Immunology, Inflammation, and Autoimmunity Leadership

CHI Leadership

Portrait of James M. Cherry, Ph.D.

James M. Cherry, Ph.D.

James M. Cherry, Ph.D.

Chief of Operations

Dr. Jim Cherry obtained his Ph.D. from the Catholic University of America in molecular biology with a concentration in bio-medical science. He earned an M.S. from Johns Hopkins University in molecular biology with a concentration in biotechnology. His bachelors degree is from Shepherd University with a major in biology and minor in chemistry. Dr. Cherry career led him to become a scientific program director in the Office of Scientific Operations, NCI. Then, in 2020, Dr. Cherry was recruited to lead the NIAID Research Technology Branch.

Portrait of Iyadh Douagi

Iyadh Douagi, Ph.D.

Credit: NIAID

Iyadh Douagi, Ph.D.

Director

Dr. Douagi obtained his Ph.D. in Immunology from the Pierre and Marie Curie University in France in 2001. Following a postdoctoral training at AstraZeneca, he joined the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden to work in vaccine research, exploiting the interplay between innate and adaptive immunity to viral pathogens. In 2019, Dr. Douagi was recruited by the NIAID/RTB to lead the Flow Cytometry Section. Since 2022 he is also the Director of the CHI. As CHI Director, Dr. Douagi is responsible for guiding the science and operations of the Center alongside CHI senior leadership.

Portrait of Craig Martens

Craig Martens Ph.D.

Credit: NIAID

Craig Martens Ph.D.

Deputy Director

Dr. Martens obtained his Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California in 1996. After his Ph.D., Dr. Martens worked as a Bioinformatic Scientist for Chiron Corp and Novartis prior to becoming a Staff Scientist at the NIH in 2008. In 2017, Dr. Martens was recruited by the NIAID/RTB to lead the Genomics Research Section. Then, in 2022 he also agreed to become the Deputy Director of the CHI. As CHI Deputy Director, Dr. Martens is responsible for guiding the science and operations of the Center alongside CHI senior leadership.

CHI Scientists

Portrait of Richard Apps, Ph.D

Richard Apps, Ph.D

Credit: NIAID

Richard Apps, Ph.D

CHI Scientist

Dr. Richard Apps obtained his Ph.D. from Cambridge, England, characterizing human immune responses at the maternal-fetal interface. He then studied HIV disease, as a postdoctoral fellow at NCI and Assistant Professor at George Washington University, identifying impacts of human variation and viral evasion during human infections. With this interest in phenotyping primary human samples he joined the CHI in 2018, focusing on applying the multi-modal high dimensional technologies available here to investigate immune function.

Visit the National Library of Medicine for a list of publications.

Portrait of Aparna Kotekar, Ph.D

Aparna Kotekar, Ph.D

Credit: NIAID

Aparna Kotekar, Ph.D

CHI Scientist

Dr. Aparna Kotekar obtained her Ph.D. from Mumbai University studying genetic markers that define individual susceptibility to oral cancer. Her scientific career has spanned basic academic research, corporate healthcare as well as teaching. As a Staff Scientist at the NCI, she focused on investigating the mechanisms of gene regulation through key players in transcription and cellular immunity like cancer therapy target BRD4, and MHC Class I. Furthermore, during a 5-year stint as Director of a Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory in India, she led the development of over 100 Molecular Diagnostic assays and successfully oversaw their application in hospitals across the country. She was recruited to CHI in 2023 to implement cutting-edge single cell technologies to better understand immunological processes involved in disease pathogenesis and to continue to develop CHI’s genomics technology portfolio.

Visit the National Library of Medicine for a list of publications.

Portrait of Liya Wang, Ph.D

Liya Wang, Ph.D

Credit: NIAID

Liya Wang, Ph.D

CHI Scientist

Dr. Liya Wang obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin Madison, developing computational methods for solving protein structures via NMR. In 2021, he joined AtlasXomics Inc. as the Director of Bioinformatics and Software Engineering to lead the construction of the bioinformatics pipelines and infrastructure for processing and management of the spatial genomics and epigenomics assays. In 2023, he joined the CHI bioinformatics team expanding the support of the NIH/NIAID Integrated Data Science Section.

Visit the National Library of Medicine for a list of publications.

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