In the News

Faculty Awards

July 2021	Watson Recognized as “Future Leader in the Field of Host-Microbe Interactions” by Infection and Immunity
April 2021	Dr. Alistair McGregor awarded a new five year NIH (NIAID) R01 Grant totaling $2.3 Million (direct) to further his lab’s ongoing research into congenital cytomegalovirus.
Feb 16, 2021	Dr. Samuel elected into the American Academy of Microbiology
Feb 2020	Jeff Cirillo elected into the American Academy of Microbiology Jeff Cirillo named American Academy of Microbiology Fellow
Jan 2018	Dr. Laura West selected as Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) Fellow
Oct 2018	Dr. Helene Andrews-Polymenis named 2018 Presidential Impact Fellow
Nov 2018	Dr. Jeff Cirillo selected as AAAS fellow
Oct 2017	Dr. Zhilei Chen receives the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award

Research News & Publications

Dec 2021	The Samuel lab has a new research paper published in PNAS, "Coxiella burnetii inhibits host immunity by a protein phosphatase adapted from glycolysis"
Nov 2021	Alexandra Powell, a PhD student in the Skare lab, is a co-author on a paper published in The Journal of Immunology.
May 2021	Yuanjiu “Abby” Lei, MS, a 5^th year PhD student in the West lab is the first author on a paper published in Science Advances.
April 2021	Sylvia Torres Odio, MS, a 3rd year PhD student in the West lab, is the first author on a paper published in The Journal of Immunology. Her photo of CLPP-knockout (KO) cells was used for the cover of the Journal of Immunology April 15, 2021; Volume 206,Issue 8.
June 2020	Dr. Samuel leads team testing COVID-19 Vaccine Candidates
June 2020	Dr. Jeff Cirillo leading a trial of TB and Polio vaccines against COVID-19
June 2020	Drs. Paul deFigueiredo and Arum Han receive a National Science Foundation grant to pursue the 'lab-on-a-chip' technology to rapidly identify antibodies for therapeutics to fight COVID-19.
April 2020	Dr. Jeff Cirillo awarded 2.5 million to fast-track COVID-19 Treatment
April 2019	Drs. Samuel, deFigueiredo and van Schaik awarded 14.2 million grant from DARPA
Sept 2018	Dr. Helene Andrews-Polymenis explores the undiscovered mechanics of Salmonella Infection
April 2018	Dr. Phillip West and Dr. Laura West work together to unlock the potential of Mitochondria
Aug 2018	Drs. Jon Skare, Magnus Hook and Sara Lawhon team up to investigate how Staphylococcus pseudintermedius causes infection
Feb 2018	Drs. Robert Alaniz and Arul Jayaraman explore the frontiers of medical engineering innovation
Dec 2017	Dr. Carolyn Cannon is engineering a better drug delivery system

Post Doc Awards

Oct 2020 - Dr. Marie Southerland wins second place poster at postdoctoral research symposium
Vanessa Ante, PhD, has been awarded a Career Development Award from the Department of Defense as part of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program for Tick-Borne Disease. This grant provides an opportunity for Dr. Ante to transition from Post-doctoral Research Associate in the laboratory of Dr. Jenny Hyde in the MPIM department to develop an independent research program for the pursuit of a future faculty position.

Student Awards

Aravindh Nagarjan, a graduate student in the Genetics program in the Andrews-Polymenis lab, won the best oral presentation award at the Texas Genetics Society meeting last week. Congratulations to Aravindh!
Yuanjiu "Abby" Lei, MS, a 5th year PhD student in the West lab, received an American Heart Association Pre-Doctoral Fellowship. The award will support her research to define how mitochondrial dysfunction and innate immunity contribute to chemotherapy-related heart dysfunction. Congrats Abby!
Read the full article here: https://vitalrecord.tamhsc.edu/lei-awarded-american-heart-association-fellowship/
Sylvia Torres-Odio, a fourth year PhD student in the West Laboratory, received an NIH-F31 Diversity Award from the NIH NHLBI entitled: 'Investigating the role of CMPK2 in mitochondrial homeostasis and antiviral immunity." Congratulations Sylvia!
Haley Scott, Medical Sciences Ph.D. student, received a notice of award for an F31 NRSA Individual Predoctoral Fellowship from the NIH. Haley is a student in Drs. Kristin Patrick and Robbie Watson’s labs in the Department of Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunology. Congratulations, Haley!
Yuanjiu “Abby” Lei, MS, a 5^th year PhD student in the West lab, received an American Heart Association Pre-Doctoral Fellowship. The award will support her research to define how mitochondrial dysfunction and innate immunity contribute to chemotherapy-related heart dysfunction. Congrats Abby!
Alexandra Powell, a 3^rd year Ph.D. student in the Skare lab, was awarded 2^nd place at the Texas A&M 2021 IBT GSO Symposium for her talk entitled “Classical Pathway Inhibition as an Immune Evasion and Survival Technique in Borrelia Species”. Congratulations Alex!