Seminars in Infection & Immunity
SPRING 2023
Friday, January 27, 2023
Immune Control of Gut Mucus-Associated Commensals

Craig Maynard, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Pathology, Division of Molecular and Cellular Pathology
Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Hosted by: Mandy McGeachy, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, February 3, 2023
Teaching the Teachers: Crosstalk Between Thymocytes and Thymic APCs

Lauren Ehrlich, PhD
Associate Professor
Lorene Morrow Kelley Fellow
Department of Molecular Biosciences
Department of Oncology, Dell Medical School
University of Texas at Austin
Hosted by: Brian Rudd, MPH, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, February 10, 2023
Investigating and Expanding the Structures and Functions of Secretory Antibodies
Beth Stadtmueller, PhD
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry
College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
School of Molecular & Cellular Biology
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Hosted by: Andrew Flyak, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, February 17, 2023
Tissue-specific Transcriptional Regulation of T Cell Immunity

Amanda Poholek, PhD
Director of the Health Sciences Sequencing Core at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh
Assistant Professor
Department of Pediatrics
Department of Immunology
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Hosted by: Mandy McGeachy, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, February 24, 2023
Understanding Birnaviridae Replication, Pathogenicity, and Antigenicity

Andrew Broadbent, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Animal & Avian Sciences
College of Agriculture & Natural Resources
University of Maryland
Hosted by: Colin Parrish, PhD
Baker Institute for Animal Health
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, March 3, 2023
Receptor Usage by Hantaviruses

Rohit Jangra, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Louisiana State University Health at Shreveport
Hosted by: John Parker, BVMS, PhD
Baker Institute for Animal Health
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, March 10, 2023
Rotavirus Host Restriction Through the Lens of the Reverse Genetics System

Siyuan Ding, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Molecular Microbiology
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Hosted by: Sarah Caddy, MA, VetMB, PhD, DACVM, MRCVS
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, March 17, 2023
Unraveling The Secrets of the Stem Cell Secretome

Gerlinde Van de Walle, PhD
Associate Professor
Baker Institute for Animal Health
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
College of Veterinary Medicine
Cornell University
Hosted by: Deborah Fowell, DPhil (PhD)
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, March 31, 2023
Looking Under the Hood: The Metabolic Transmission of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis

Kyu Rhee, PhD
Professor of Medicine
Weill Cornell Medical College
Hosted by: Brian VanderVen, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, April 14, 2023
Mechanisms Regulating the Immune-Vascular Interplay During Neuroinflammation
*LOCATION CHANGE: Lecture Hall 2 (S1-165)*

Jorge Alvarez, BSc, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Pathobiology
School of Veterinary Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
Hosted by: Mandy McGeachy, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, April 21, 2023
Microbes, Metabolites, and Mucosal Immunity

Kathy McCoy, PhD
Professor
Department of Physiology & Pharmacology
University of Calgary
Killam Memorial Chair
Scientific Director | International Microbiome Centre
Hosted by: Brian Rudd, MPH, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, April 28, 2023
NK Cells in Host Immunity

Joseph Sun, PhD
Professor of Immunology and Director
Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis Program
Weill Cornell Medical College
Hosted by: M&I Graduate Students
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, May 5, 2023
Does A Dangerous Cousin Make You Dangerous? Assessing the Pathogenic Potential of Newly Discovered Filoviruses

Elke Muhlberger, PhD
Director of Integrated Science Services
National Emerging Infectious Dieseases Laboratories (NEIDL)
Professor of Microbiology
Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
Boston University
Hosted by: M&I Graduate Students
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, May 12, 2023
Convergent Evolution of Human Hepatitis C Virus bNAb Lineages with Diverse VH Genes

Justin Bailey, MD, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Medicine
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Attending Physician
Johns Hopkins Hospital
Hosted by: Andrew Flyak, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
*This seminar is not part of the VETMI 7120 course.*
Friday, May 26, 2023
CD8+ T Cell Immunity: New Tools To Answer Old Questions

Brian Rudd, MPH, PhD
Associate Professor of Immunology
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
College of Veterinary Medicine
Cornell University
Hosted by: Deborah Fowell, DPhil (PhD)
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
*This seminar is not part of the VETMI 7120 course.*
FALL 2022
Friday, September 16, 2022 -- VIRTUAL
Fantastic IgA Plasma Cells and Where to Find Them

Jennifer Gommerman, PhD
Professor & Canada Research Chair in Tissue-specific Immunity
Department of Immunology
Temerty Faculty of Medicine
University of Toronto
Hosted by: Cindy Leifer, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
*Please contact Taylor Trask (tt488@cornell.edu) for the Zoom information.
Friday, September 23, 2022
Ambiguous Anti-Viral Antibodies

Sarah Caddy, MA, VetMB, PhD, DACVM, MRCVS
Assistant Professor
Baker Institute for Animal Health
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
College of Veterinary Medicine
Cornell University
Hosted by: Deborah Fowell, DPhil (PhD)
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, October 14, 2022
Edosomal Entry of Herpes Simplex Virus

Anthony Nicola, PhD
Professor of Virology
Department of Veterinary Microbiology & Pathology
College of Veterinary Medicine
Washington State University
Hosted by: Hector Aguilar-Carreno, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, October 21, 2022
Control of Salmonella Virulence by Chemical Signals of the Intestine

Craig Altier, PhD
Professor
Department of Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences
College of Veterinary Medicine
Cornell University
Hosted by: Brian VanderVen, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, October 28, 2022
Extracellular DNA in Immunity and Autoimmunity

Boris Reizis, PhD
Professor
Department of Pathology
Samuel A. Brown Professor
Department of Medicine
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Hosted by: Colleen Lau, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, November 4, 2022
To the Tune of c-di-GMP: Biofilm-mediated Flea Borne Transmission of the Bubonic Plague

Viveka Vadyvaloo, PhD
Associate Director & Associate Professor
Paul Allen School for Animal Health
College of Veterinary Medicine
Washington State University
Hosted by: Hector Aguilar-Carreno, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, November 18, 2022
Integrated Approaches to Gastrointestinal Nematode Control

Raffi Aroian, PhD
Professor
Program in Molecular Medicine
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Hosted by: Dwight Bowman, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, December 2, 2022 -- VIRTUAL
Clonal Dynamics of the Recall Antibody Response

Gabriel Victora, PhD
Laurie and Peter Grauer Associate Professor & Head
Laboratory of Lymphocyte Dynamics
The Rockefeller University
Hosted by: Deborah Fowell, DPhil (PhD)
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
*Please contact Taylor Trask (tt488@cornell.edu) for the Zoom information.
Friday, December 9, 2022
SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Evolution of Immune Escape

Jonathan Abraham, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Microbiology
Blavatnik Institute
Harvard Medical School
Hosted by: Hector Aguilar-Carreno, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
*This seminar is not part of the VETMI 7120 course.*
SPRING 2022
Friday, January 28, 2022
Leveraging early life immunity to end pandemics

Sallie Permar, MD, PhD
Nancy C. Paduano Professor and Chair
Weill Cornell Medicine
Pediatrician-in-Chief
New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center
Hosted by: Gary Whittaker, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, February 4, 2022
The Battle of Leuven against SARS-CoV2 and Dengue

Johan Neyts, PhD
Professor of Virology
School of Medicine & Dentistry
University of Leuven Belgium
Hosted by: Luis Schang, MV, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, February 11, 2022
Regulation of Herpesvirus Transcription during Productive and Latent infection

Joel D. Baines, VMD, PhD
James Law Professor of Virology
Emeritus
College of Veterinary Medicine
Cornell University
Hosted by: Brian VanderVen
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, February 18, 2022
SARS-CoV-2 virus –host interactions

Adolf Garcia-Sastre, PhD
Director Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute
Professor, Microbiology
Professor, Medicine, Infectious Diseases
Professor, Pathology, Molecular and Cell Based Medicine
Icahan School of Medicine
Hosted by: Hector Aguilar-Carreno, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, February 25, 2022
The epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) drives refractory responses of breast carcinomas to immune checkpoint blockade therapies
Anushka Dongre, PhD
Assistant Professor of Immunology
Department of Biomedical Sciences
College of Veterinary Medicine
Cornell University
Hosted by: Deborah Fowell, D. Phil.
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, March 4, 2022
The class II fusion machinery: specific chaperones for folding and fusion activation

Félix Rey, PhD
Professor
Head of Structure
Department of Virology
Institut Pasteur
Hosted by: Theodore Clark, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, March 11, 2022
Discovering Reactive and Dominant Immune Archetypes in Cancer

Max Krummel, PhD
Professor
Department of Pathology
University of California San Francisco
Hosted by: Deborah Fowell, D. Phil.
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, March 18, 2022
Myeloid cell control of tumor specific immunity

Miriam Merad, MD, PhD
Director of the Precision Immunology Institute
Director of the Mount Sinai Human Immune Monitoring Center
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Hosted by: Deborah Fowell, D. Phil.
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, March 25, 2022
Chromatin Loops and Transcriptional Control of HSV-1 in Neurons

Donna Neumann, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences
McPherson Eye Research Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Hosted by: Luis Schang, MV, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
POSTPONED from Friday, April 15, 2022

Edward Pearce, PhD
Bloomberg Distinguished Professor
Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center School of Medicine
Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
Bloomberg School of Public Health
John Hopkins University
Hosted by: Theodore Clark, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, April 22, 2022
Immunity and social behavior through the prism of functional mycobiota exploration
Iliyan D. Iliev, PhD
Associate Professor of Immunology in Medicine
Co-director Microbiome Core Lab
Jill Roberts Institute for Research in Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Joan and Sanford I. Weill Department of Medicine
Weill Cornell Medicine
Hosted by: Cynthia Leifer, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
POSTPONED from Friday, April 29, 2022
Turning (to) the soil for parasite cures: Bt vs. Intestinal Nematodes

Raffi V. Aroian, PhD
Professor
Program in Molecular Medicine
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Hosted by: Dwight Bowman, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
FALL 2021
Friday, September 10, 2021
Tracking of Novel SARS-CoV-2 Lineages Through Wastewater Surveillance

Marc Johnson, PhD
Professor
Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
University of Missouri-Columbia, School of Medicine
Hosted by: Volker M. Vogt, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, September 17, 2021
CD8 T cell Responses to Infection

Sara Hamilton Hart, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology
University of Minnesota
Hosted by: Cybelle Tabilas & Kaley Wilburn
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, September 24, 2021
The National Cancer Institute: Leading Cancer Research in 2021 and Beyond

Norman E. Sharpless, MD
Director
National Cancer Institute
Hosted by: Robert Weiss
Department of Biomedical Sciences
Friday, October 1, 2021-virtual
RNA-mediated control of the type I interferon response

Sara Macias, PhD
Sir Henry Dale Fellow and Chancellor's Fellow
Institute of Immunology and Infection Research
The University of Edinburgh
Hosted by: John Parker
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, October 15, 2021
Deciphering the chemical crosstalk of host-gut microbiome interactions

Pamela Chang, PhD
Assistant Professor of Immunology
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
College of Veterinary Medicine
Cornell University
Hosted by: Deborah Fowell, D. Phil.
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, October 22, 2021-virtual
How do immune responses differ in inflamed human tissues and tumors?

Martin Prlic, PhD
Associate Member
Vaccine & Infection Disease Division
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Affiliate Associate Professor
Department of Immunology, University of Washington
Hosted by: Brian Rudd
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, October 29, 2021-virtual
Putting the spotlight on the molecular choreography of viral RNAs

Alex Borodavka, PhD
Sir Henry Dale Research Fellow
Department of Biochemistry
University of Cambridge
Hosted by: John Parker
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, November 12, 2021
The immune system in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: one cell at a time
Andrew Grimson, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Molecular Biology & Genetic
College of Arts & Sciences
Cornell University
Hosted by: Brian VanderVen
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, November 19, 2021
Emerging deadly viruses and their glycoproteins-From viral entry to vaccines and antivirals

Hector Aguilar-Carreno, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
College of Veterinary Medicine
Cornell University
Hosted by: Deborah Fowell, D. Phil.
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, December 3, 2021
Investigating CD8 T cell responses against cancer and self in engineered animal models

Nikhil Joshi, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Immunology
Yale School of Medicine
Hosted by: Cybelle Tabilas & Kaley Wilburn
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
SPRING 2021
Friday, February 12, 2021
Measles Virus: Endgame (?)

Benhur Lee, MD
Professor
Ward-Coleman Chair of Microbiology
Department of Microbiology
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Hosted by: Hector Aguilar-Carreno
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, February 19, 2021
COVID-19: Using chemogenomics to discover antivirals

Sara Cherry, PhD
Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Penn Medicine
Hosted by: John Parker
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, February 26, 2021
Understanding & developing low-immunogenic biomaterials

Shaoyi Jiang, PhD
Robert S. Langer ’70 Family & Friends Professor
Meining School of Biomedical Engineering
Cornell University
Hosted by: Avery August
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, March 5, 2021
Modulation of innate immunity by arboviruses: Feeling the STING

Ana Fernandez-Sesma, PhD
Professor of Microbiology
Professor of Medicine, Infectious Diseases
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Hosted by: Hector Aguilar-Carreno
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, March 12, 2021
Gene regulatory mechanisms that assemble the T-cell identity

Ellen Rothenberg, PhD
Albert Billings Ruddock Professor of Biology
Division of Biology and Biological Engineering
Caltech
Hosted by: Brian Rudd
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, March 19, 2021
Engineering combination therapies for M. tuberculosis

Bree Aldridge, PhD
Associate Professor of Molecular Biology & Microbiology
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Tufts University
Hosted by: David Russell
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, March 26, 2021
Optimizing T cell activation in inflamed tissues

Deborah Fowell, PhD
Department Chair
Professor
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
College of Veterinary Medicine
Cornell University
Friday, April 2, 2021
Chemical virology, a powerful approach to learn about viral entry, gene expression, replication, and pathogenesis

Luis M Schang, MV, PhD
Professor of Chemical Virology
Baker institute for Animal Health
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
College of Veterinary Medicine
Cornell University
Friday, April 9, 2021
Epigenetics mechanisms of trained innate immunity

Musa Mhlanga, PhD
Professor
Division of Chemical & Systems Biology
University of Cape Town
Cape Town, South Africa
Hosted by: David Russell
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, April 16, 2021
Innate immune defense against intracellular bacterial pathogens

Sunny Shin, PhD
Associate Professor of Microbiology
Department of Microbiology
Perelman School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
Hosted by: Brian VanderVen
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
email: bcv8
Friday, April 30, 2021
Regulation of Inflammatory Responses

Katherine A Fitzgerald, PhD
Professor
Department of Medicine
UMass
Hosted by: Gary Koretzky
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, May 7, 2021 - CO-SPONSORED with the FRIEDMAN CENTER SEMINAR SERIES
Translating immunology into new therapies for Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Fiona Powrie, FRS, FMedSci
Professor of Musculoskeletal Science
Director of the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, NDORMS
University of Oxford
Hosted by: Gary Koretzky
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, May 14, 2021
Memory B cells responding to infection

Marion Pepper, PhD
Associate Professor of Immunology
Department of Immunology
University of Washington
Hosted by: Deb Fowell
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
FALL 2020
Friday, September 4, 2020
Many pathways: a TNF family receptor that influences the microbiome, tissue function and mucosal immunity

Mitchell Kronenberg, PhD
President & Chief Scientific Officer
Division of Development Immunology
La Jolla Institute for Immunology
Hosted by: Gary Koretzky
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, September 11, 2020
Inside Out: regulation of macrophage innate immunity and inflammation

Cynthia Leifer, PhD
Associate Professor of Immunology
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
College of Veterinary Medicine
Cornell University
Hosted by: Ted Clark
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, September 18, 2020
Pathogenicity Islands from Tn7 Elements: Safe Sites, Mobile Plasmids, CRISP/Cas and Beyond

Joe Peters, PhD
Professor and Director of Graduate Studies
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Department of Microbiology
Cornell University
Hosted by: Jeongmin Song
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, September 25, 2020
Integrating T cell signals: Lessons from primary immunodeficiencies

Pamela Schwartzberg, MD, PhD
Chief, Cell Signaling and Immunity Section
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Hosted by: Avery August
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, October 2, 2020
Crosstalk of innate immune receptors with the microbiota and adaptive immunity in autoimmunity and cancer

Jenny Ting, PhD
William Rand Kenan Professor
Department of Genetics
Director, Center for Translational Immunology
School of Medicine
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Hosted by: Gary Koretzky
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, October 16, 2020
Imaging and imagining bacterial flagella

Eric Sundberg, PhD
Professor and Chair
Department of Biochemistry
Emory University School of Medicine
Hosted by: Jeongmin Song
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, October 23, 2020
Control of viral infection by inhibitory natural killer cell receptors

Wayne Yokoyama, MD
Sam and Audrey Loew Levin Professor of Medicine
Pathology and Immunology and director of the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP)
Washington University School of Medicine
Hosted by: Gary Koretzky
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, October 30, 2020
Long-term Immunity...the Key to Normalcy

Susan Kaech, PhD
Professor and Director
SALK
NOMIS Center for Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis
NOMIS Chair
Hosted by: Cybelle Tabilas
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, November 6, 2020
Protective and pathogenic T cell responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection

Daniel Leo Barber, PhD
Chief
T-Lymphocyte Biology Section
NIAID/DIR
Hosted by: Brian VanderVen
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, November 13, 2020
Immunologic regulation of immunity, inflammation and cancer

Gregory F. Sonnenberg, PhD
Associate Professor of Microbiology & Immunology in Medicine
Weill Cornell Medicine
Jill Roberts Institute for Research in IBD
Department of Medicine, Gastroenterology Division
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Cornell University
Hosted by: Brian Rudd
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, November 20, 2020
Polyparasitism in school-aged children living in schistosomiasis endemic focus of Muyuka-Cameroon: a cross sectional study on infection outcomes and determinants

Irene Ule Ngole Sumbele, PhD
Associate Professor
Medical Parasitology
University of Buea
Hosted by: Gary Whittaker
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Friday, December 4, 2020
T cell differentiation and dysfunction in tumors

Andrea Schietinger, PhD
Assistant Member
Immunology Program
Sloan Kettering Institute
Hosted by: Brian Rudd
Department of Microbiology & Immunology