Current Immunology Grant Trainees
2023-2024 T32 Training Grant Recipients
Alison Barkhymer
barkh007@umn.edu
Microbiology & Immunology Graduate Student 2020
Mentor: Ryan Langlois
Research Interest: How viruses interact with early innate immunity.
Microbiology & Immunology Graduate Student 2021
Mentor: Ingunn Stromnes
Research Interest: Antigen-specific CD4+ T cell dynamics in pancreatic cancer.
Jacob Hildebrand
hilde236@umn.edu
Microbiology & Immunology Graduate Student 2019
Mentor: Sara Hamilton-Hart
Research Interest: Studying NK cell and CD8 T cell interactions during severe malaria infection.
Thomas Hougard
moham551@umn.edu
Medical Scientist Training Program (MD./PhD), 2020
Microbiology & Immunology Graduate Student 2022
Mentor: Michael Farrar
Research Interest: The role of regulatory T cells in Alzheimer's disease.
Microbiology & Immunology Graduate Student 2021
Mentor: Matt Aliota
Research Interest: How variations in the STING cleavage site sequence affect host susceptibility to dengue virus (DENV) infection, focusing on the role of the cGAS-STING pathway in the immune response. The goal is to create and validate a humanized STING transgenic mouse model that can serve as an immunocompetent model for DENV.
Microbiology & Immunology Graduate Student 2020
Mentor: Tyler Bold
Research Interest: Investigating T cell-dependent and independent mechanisms by which diverse lung phagocytic cell types impact intracellular Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Monica Sauer
sauer279@umn.edu
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics Graduate Student 2020
Mentor: Tanya Freedman
Research Interest: Investigating whether the Src-family kinase LynA, which helps restrain autoimmunity in female mice, mediates hormone signaling in immune cells or suppresses TLR7 signaling, which is X-linked. Given that systemic lupus erythematosus is ten times more common in women than men, I'm using LynAKO mice to uncover sex-specific signaling mechanisms driving autoimmunity.