People

David Bennin

Laboratory Manager

Julie Rindy, MSc

Zebrafish Facility Manager

Veronika Miskolci, PhD

Postdoctoral Associate

   Adam Horn, PhD

Postdoctoral Associate

Ashley Peterson

Comparative Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program

Neutrophils must integrate various signals in order to efficiently navigate through various physiological environments. I’m interested studying the migratory behavior of neutrophils in the inflammatory microenvironment and how they are able to integrate such complex signaling cues.

Taylor Schoen, MSc

Comparative Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program

Lucas Klemm

Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology Graduate Program

Innate immune cells, such as neutrophils and macrophages, are important regulators of inflammation. Inflammatory stimuli like wounding and infection activate signaling pathways that orchestrate complex cellular responses. My research utilizes human induced-pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to model phosphatase signaling and patient mutations resulting in innate immune system defects. I am genetically engineering iPSCs to be better at fighting microbes and promoting wound healing for development of future cell-based therapies.

Morgan Giese

Cellular and Molecular Biology Graduate Program

Neutrophils can have both pro- and anti-tumor effects. I am interested in studying neutrophil interactions with other innate immune cells, such as macrophages, to determine if these relationships modulate their response in the tumor microenvironment.

Nicholas Raffa,

Microbiology Doctoral Training Program

From essential antibiotics to deadly toxins, secondary metabolites produced by fungi comprise some of the most medically important compounds known. The genus Aspergillus contains many of these fungi, including the opportunistic human pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus.  My research involves studying the various secondary metabolites produced by A. fumigatus, analyzing how they affect pathogenesis and immune system dynamics using the zebrafish model.

Benjamin Korte

Cancer Biology Graduate Program

Innate immune cells in the tumor microenvironment are correlated with poor prognosis.  Additionally, these cells have the capacity to promote tumor growth and survival, seemingly as a consequence of their role in wound healing.  I’m interested in the mechanism behind how innate immune cells arrive at a nascent tumor and how these immune cells influence tumor development.

Ruth Houseright, DVM, DACVP

Comparative Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program

She is interested in the interplay of the innate immune system and cancer, and is currently studying the effects of myeloid derived growth factor (MyDGF) on leukocyte behavior.

Jayne Squirrell, PhD

LOCI collaborator

With my optical imaging expertise in my home laboratory, the Laboratory for Optical and Computational Instrumentation (LOCI), I collaborate with members of the Huttenlocher lab to push forward the application of cutting edge imaging resources to the study of inflammation in the zebrafish embryo.  Although I am interested imaging a variety of aspects of the inflammatory response, with my background in embryology and regenerative biology, I am particularly enthusiastic about imaging collagen reorganization during wound healing and tissue re-growth.

Gayathri Ramakrishnan, MS

Cancer Biology Graduate Program

Neutrophils can have differential states of activation/differentiation in the tumor and they can be pro or anti-tumorigenic depending on the microenvironment. I am specifically interested in studying how neutrophils influence the growth and survival of transformed hepatocytes and the response of other immune cells in the liver using zebrafish models of Hepatocellular carcinoma.

Simone Shen

Molecular & Cellular Pharmacology Graduate Program

I am interested in host pathogen interaction and how this interaction affects wound repair in the host. My research focuses on the complex networks involved in wound healing in the context of bacterial infection. Specifically, I’m studying the crosstalk between inflammation and tissue regeneration using zebrafish and Listeria monocytogenes as my model.