Daniel F. Zegarra-Ruiz, PhD

Principal Investigator

Assistant Professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology (MIC)
Member, Beirne B. Carter Immunology Center (CIC)

Dr. Daniel F. Zegarra-Ruiz was born and raised in Peru, where he received his BS in Pharmacy and Biochemistry in 2013. Before concluding his undergraduate studies, he did an internship at Vanderbilt University. He received his PhD in Immunobiology from Yale University in the lab of Dr. Martin Kriegel in 2018, where he identified intestinal microbes and metabolites that can regulate intestinal and systemic inflammation and alter disease outcomes. He then joined the lab of Dr. Gretchen Diehl (first at Baylor College of Medicine and then at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center). During his postdoctoral training he continued to investigate how intestinal microbes can modulate immune processes involved in health and disease. Particularly, he found an early life developmental window that allows for trafficking of intestinal microbes to the thymus which drives expansion of microbiota-recognizing T cells.

Daniel has received multiple fellowships and awards, amongst others: As a graduate student he received a Gina M. Finzi memorial Student Summer Fellowship from the Lupus Foundation of America; as a postdoc, he received a Ludwig Center Basic and Translational Immunology Postdoctoral Award for his continued studies on microbiota and colorectal cancer. More recently, he earned a K99/R00 career development award to support his transition into independence. In addition, he was chosen as the 2020 AAI Lefrançois-BioLegend Award Recipient for outstanding abstract in mucosal immunology. He received the 2022 AAI Thermo Fischer Achievement Award, for promising trainees and outstanding abstracts, as well as the 2023 AAI Minority Scientist travel award. More recently, he was awarded the 2022 Dr. Eddie Méndez Award by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center; the 2022 Tri-Institutional Breakout Prize for Junior Investigators; and he was selected as a finalist for the 2022 Blavatnik Regional Award for Young Scientists in Life Sciences.

When not in the lab, he spends most of his time with friends, family in Peru, his wife, his opinionated two-year-old, and his dog.