Professor of Medicine/Cardiovascular Division
Beirne B. Carter Professor of Immunology
Director of the Beirne B. Carter Center for Immunology Research
University of Virginia

Title: "The B-side of Atherosclerosis"

Dr. Coleen McNamara is Professor of Medicine in the Cardiovascular Division, Beirne B. Carter Professor of Immunology and Director of the Carter Immunology Center at the University of Virginia. She is a Physician-Scientist who uses integrated approaches of mechanistic discovery and clinical translation to better understand how B cells contribute to cardiometabolic diseases such as obesity and atherosclerosis. Her work, identifying novel genetic and immune factors mediating cardiometabolic diseases in mice and humans has led to over 120 publications in top tier journals, uninterrupted NIH funding since 1994, and international collaborative grant awards from the Leducq Foundation. She has been awarded the American Heart Association (AHA) Special Recognition Award in Arteriosclerosis and the AHA Russell Ross Memorial award in Atherosclerosis. She is lead PI on a Prominence to Preeminence (P2PE) Award from UVA to develop Precision ImmunoMedicine for Cardiovascular disease.

Assistant Professor of Medicine
Assistant Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology
Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology and Inflammation

Title: "Metabolic regulation of dendritic cell function"

Denis Mogilenko, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, and Pathology, Microbiology, & Immunology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). He was trained in immunometabolism and systems immunology at the French Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Since 2022, the Mogilenko Lab at VUMC has been studying how the metabolic regulation of immune cells contributes to the development of inflammatory diseases and cancer. The laboratory focuses on understanding how cellular and whole-body metabolic processes regulate communications between immune cells such as dendritic cells and T cells in inflammation, obesity, and aging.

Postdoctoral Fellow
California Institute of Technology

Title: "Runx Factors Drive Lymphoid Fate Programs via Direct and Gene Network-Based Mechanisms"

As a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Ellen Rothenberg at the California Institute of Technology, she investigates how Runx family transcription factors shape the gene expression programs essential for early thymic T cell development.
Boyoung will launch her laboratory at Emory University in September 2025 to explore how multilineage transcription factors establish context-specific gene expression programs. By comparing and perturbing transcription factor activities across different cellular contexts, her research aims to provide new insights into how broadly expressed transcription factors drive or respond to changes in 3D chromatin architecture, local chromatin state dynamics, and gene regulatory networks in T cells during normal development and chronic inflammatory pathogenesis.

Assistant Member, Department of Immunology
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Title: "Unraveling the Spatial Dynamics of T Cell Coreceptor Signaling to Boost Anti-Tumor Immunity"

Dr. Yunlong Zhao is an Assistant Member at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, where he is part of the Department of Immunology and the Center of Excellence in Pediatric Immuno-Oncology. With a background in postdoctoral training at UC San Diego, Dr. Zhao developed an innovative membrane reconstitution system to study the spatial regulation of T cell signaling. His work revealed that T cell coreceptors engage with their ligands not only in trans (between different cells) but also in cis (on the same cell)—a largely unexplored phenomenon. Now at St. Jude, Dr. Zhao is focused on advancing cancer immunotherapy by delving deeper into the complexities of cis- and trans-signaling, aiming to harness these insights for the development of therapeutic approaches.

Associate Professor, Department of Surgery
Emory University School of Medicine

Title: "Leveraging Adoptive T Cell Therapy for Durable Immunity Against Solid Tumors"

Chrystal M. Paulos, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Surgery and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Emory University School of Medicine. Prior to joining Emory, Dr. Paulos was the Cecilia and Vincent Peng Endowed Chair in Melanoma at Medical University of South Carolina. She also served as co-leader of the Cancer Immunology Research Program and director of the Adoptive Cancer Immunotherapy Program at Hollings Cancer Center in Charleston, South Carolina.
The objective of Dr. Paulos' research is to develop novel T cell-based therapies for patients with melanoma. Her laboratory seeks to identify mechanisms underlying protective immunity in solid tumors, with an emphasis on adoptive T cell transfer (ACT) therapy. By combining basic and translational understanding of human T cells in clinical studies with mechanistic studies in relevant mouse models and in investigator initiated clinical trials in patients, her research team has contributed significant insight into the various roles of how to mount T cell memory responses to tumors.

Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular Medicine
The Scripps Research Institute

Title: "Immune Microenvironment in Heterogeneous Brain Tumors"

Her research group investigates different aspects of tumor cell diversity in highly aggressive brain tumors, aiming to understand and disrupt the cancer ecosystem. The Janiszewska lab is using in situ approaches to gain insight into localization of cells with different genotypes within tumor tissue and the variability in tumor microenvironments, to identify interactions between cancer cells that may increase treatment resistance. To uncover the mechanisms behind co-operation of genetically distinct subpopulations of cancer cell in specific niches, Janiszewska lab is generating in vitro and in vivo models of spatially constrained subpopulations to better understand tumor evolution under treatment and during disease progression. Other projects include the analysis of epigenetic diversity within genetically distinct subpopulations of human brain tumors to characterize the source of intratumor heterogeneity and development of novel lead compounds for targeted therapy in adult and pediatric high-grade gliomas.

Associate Professor, Microbiology and Immunology
UNC School of Medicine

Title: "Antiviral and Immunomodulatory Effects of Interferon Lambda in the Skin"

The Lazear Lab studies viral pathogenesis, including herpes simplex virus and mosquito- and tick-borne flaviviruses. We are interested in the effects of interferon lambda (IFN-λ) at anatomic barriers, including the skin, blood-brain barrier, and maternal-fetal interface, and the viral and host factors that control flavivirus tissue and species tropism. More information about the Lazear Lab: www.lazearlab.org

Department Head, Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology
Professor of Microbial Pathogenesis/Parasitology
VA-MD College of Veterinary Medicine

Title: "Toxoplasma Oxygen Sensing Is Important in Host Immune Evasion and Pathogenesis"

Dr. Ira Blader is Professor and Head of the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology at the Virginia Tech College of Veterinary Medicine. In 1999, he obtained his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He then performed his postdoctoral work at Stanford University where he began his studies on the protozoan parasite, Toxoplasma gondii. Before moving to Virginia Tech in 2024, he was on the faculty at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (2003-2013) and the University at Buffalo (2013-2024). His laboratory studies various facets of Toxoplasma-host interactions including defining how the parasite senses and responds to changes in its environment as well as the impact of Toxoplasma infection on the structure and function of nervous system.

Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics
University of Tennessee Health Science Center

Title: "Unveiling Immune Mechanisms of Influenza Using Custom-Built Mathematical Models"

Amber Smith, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. She received a B.Sc. in Mathematical and Computer Sciences from the Colorado School of Mines and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Utah, where she studied mathematical biology and modeling influenza and secondary pneumococcal pneumonia. Dr. Smith completed postdoctoral training in Theoretical Biology and Biophysics with Dr. Alan Perelson at the Los Alamos National Laboratory before joining Dr. Jon McCullers’ laboratory in Infectious Diseases at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. She then developed a dual dry-wet laboratory focused on developing and experimentally validating computational models of immune responses to respiratory infections.

Assistant Professor, Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology
Resident Faculty, Beirne B. Carter Immunology Center
University of Virginia

Title: "Role of Microbiota-specific T cells in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus"

Dr. Daniel F. Zegarra-Ruiz was born and raised in Peru, where he earned his BS in Pharmacy and Biochemistry in 2013. He obtained his PhD in Immunobiology from Yale University in 2018, where he identified dietary components and intestinal microbes that can regulate systemic autoimmunity and affect disease outcomes. Next, he joined Dr. Gretchen Diehl’s lab at Baylor College of Medicine and then at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. During his postdoc, he studied how intestinal microbes influence immune processes. He found a developmental window that allows intestinal dendritic cells to reach the thymus, promoting the expansion of microbiota-recognizing T cells. By the end of 2023, Daniel became an Assistant Professor in Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology and joined the Beirne B. Carter Immunology Center. His research team investigates microbiota-specific T-cell development in systemic autoimmunity, environmental influences on gut microbial communities and lupus, and interactions among genetics, immune cells, and microbes affecting lupus development.
Daniel has received numerous fellowships and awards, including the Gina M. Finzi Memorial Fellowship from the Lupus Foundation, the Ludwig Center Postdoctoral Award, and a K99/R00 career development award. He also earned the 2020 AAI Lefrançois-BioLegend Award, the 2022 AAI Thermo Fisher Achievement Award, and the 2023 AAI Minority Scientist Travel Award. Additionally, he was honored with the 2022 Dr. Eddie Méndez Award from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, the 2022 Tri-Institutional Breakout Prize, and was a finalist for the 2022 Blavatnik Regional Award for Young Scientists.

Founding Co-Director, Immunology Center of Georgia
Professor, Department of Physiology
Augusta University

Title: "Loss of tolerance to self in atherosclerosis"

Klaus holds an M.D. (1982) from JMU Würzburg, Germany. He was an associate professor at the University of Virginia 1994-1997, Professor of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering 1997-2007, director of Robert M Berne Cardiovascular Research Center 2001-2007. In 2007, he became a professor of Immunology at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology with an adjunct appointment as Professor of Bioengineering at UCSD (2007-2022). Since 2022, he is co-director of the Immunology Center of Georgia and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar. Klaus received more than 20 awards, including the Bonazinga award of the Society for Leukocyte Biology (2008), the Malpighi award of the European Microcirculatory Society (2010), the Koehler Inflammation award 2015, the Russell Ross lecture of the American Heart Association (AHA) 2015, Distinguished Scientist award (AHA 2016), Landis Award of the Microcirculatory Society 2017, Lifetime award for cardiology research, University of Graz, Austria (2021). Klaus received over $ 30 million in awards from the National Institutes of Health. He studies atherosclerosis, focusing on integrin activation in inflammatory cells, the role of olfactory receptors in atherosclerosis and the autoimmune response to APOB in order to develop a vaccine for atherosclerosis.

Professor of Ophthalmology
Associate Professor in Integrative Immunobiology
Faculty Network Member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences
Duke University School of Medicine

Title: "A Novel Neuroimmune Niche that Underpins Touch"

Daniel R. Saban, PhD is a Professor of Ophthalmology and Integrative Immunobiology at Duke University School of Medicine, and a member of the Faculty Network in the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences. His scientific journey began by studying the longstanding problem of how antigen-presenting cells are regulated in the immune-privileged environment. His approach in the mouse was to take advantage of the eye—where immune-privilege is arguably most well-characterized—sparking his enduring fascination with the eye as a model organ for studying fundamental immunology (Reyes, 2017). Building on this unique expertise, Saban's laboratory harnesses the mouse eye's exceptional accessibility now to understand macrophage-neuron interactions under normal physiological and diseased states. Using a powerful combination of in vivo imaging, electrophysiology, and behavioral analyses, his team can observe and manipulate immune cells and neurons in real-time. Studying the mouse retina in this way led to the first direct in vivo evidence of microglial heterogeneity at the functional level (O’Koren, 2019), with implications for both homeostasis and neurodegenerative states. Critical to this work was their application of tools to study native microglia versus recruited monocyte-derived macrophages (Yu, 2020). Most recently, Dr. Saban's team has turned their attention to the peripheral nervous system, leveraging the cornea's unique properties. This remarkable tissue, densely packed with nerves and in constant dialogue with the immune system, serves as an ideal platform for studying neuroimmune interactions. Through this work, his team is uncovering fundamental principles of nerve-macrophage communication that have broad implications for understanding pain, wound healing, and various pathological conditions.

Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology
University of Alabama at Birmingham

Title: "The role of the immune system in Parkinson’s disease"

Ashley S. Harms, PhD, is an associate professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in the Department of Neurology and the Center for Neurodegeneration and Experimental Therapeutics. With a strong interest in neuroimmunology, Dr. Harms studies the cellular and immunological mechanisms underlying the initiation and progression of synucleinopathy disorders. Utilizing novel genetic and viral model approaches to study the role of immune cells subsets, her lab focuses on how the protein alpha-synuclein contributes to tissue resident macrophage activation and peripheral immune cell infiltration in Parkinson’s disease and multiple system atrophy. Her work is funded by NINDS, the Michael J Fox Foundation, and Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP).