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

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.

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.

Alex Fister

Cellular and Molecular Biology Graduate Program

I am studying immune cell recruitment to wound sites during the activation of innate immunity. I am interested in how pathogen-host interactions affect this response, as well as key players involved in the activation of the innate immune response.

Yiran Hou, PhD

Postdoctoral Associate

I’m interested in identifying key factors driving successful regeneration, with the hope to improve human wound healing and regeneration. At the Huttenlocher lab, I’m exploring the role of the innate immune system in supporting regeneration. My current work focuses on molecularly defining the event of neutrophil reverse migration using single cell sequencing approach, aiming to identify molecular signatures that could distinguish neutrophils that are involved in this process from the ones that are not.

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.

Tanner Robertson, PhD

Postdoctoral Associate

I study adaptive immunity using the zebrafish, with a particular focus on T cell trafficking and motility.

Nayanna Mercado-Soto

Microbiology Doctoral Training Program

I am interested in understanding host-pathogen interactions during Aspergillus fumigatus infection. Particularly, I am curious about understanding interactions between strains of A. fumigatus in the host; and macrophage polarization during infection.

Jonathan Schrope

Graduate Program

Frances Smith

Comparative Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program

I am interested in the potential of stem cells for use in bacterial and fungal infections. We can now derive nearly all immune cells from stem cell lines and modify them to improve host response to all kinds of infection. I will explore how we can continue to improve these stem cells to optimize human immune function.