Darryl Abbott's thesis entitled "Maternal immunoglubulin A and the preweaning intestine regulate the neonatal host-microbiota relationship" will be defended on April 30, 2026 at 10 a.m. at The Assembly.
Congratulations to PMI student Darryl Abbott from Dr. Timothy Hand's laboratory @pittpediatrics.bsky.social on her upcoming PhD thesis defense! 👏
Sarah Gaffen and Dario Vignali holding their American Association of Immunologists (AAI) Distinguished Fellow of 2026 awards at the AAI meeting in Boston.
Congratulations to Drs. Dario Vignali @vignalilab.bsky.social and Sarah Gaffen @slg1717.bsky.social (
@pittdeptofmed.bsky.social) on being recognized as 2026 Distinguished fellows yesterday at @aai.org #IMMUNOLOGY2026!
Congratulations to recent PMI graduate Morgan Jackson-Strong from the @gottschalklab.bsky.social on her new paper!
Febri Sugiokto will defend his PhD thesis entitled "Promoter-specific proteomics identifies HNRNPA2B1 as an epigenetic regulator of EBV latency and reactivation" on April 22, 2026 at 1 pm.
Congratulations to PMI student @febrigunawan48.bsky.social from Dr. Renfeng Li's laboratory on his upcoming PhD thesis defense! 🎉 🎈
Dr. Miriam Merad is a woman with chin-length black hair wearing a white long sleeve shirt and a cream-colored scarf. She is smiling at the camera, standing in front of a blurred background.
Dr. Miriam Merad (Icahn School of Medicine at Mt Sinai) will present "Macrophages Key Guardians of Tissue Health and Drivers of Diseases" at our next #Eberly Distinguished Lectureship in #Immunology! @pitt-pmi.bsky.social
See you Thurs., April 23rd at noon in the Assembly Auditorium or Zoom!
Trainee Spotlight graphic with photo of Katelyn Wolfgang, graduate student in Abby Overacre's lab.
Next up in our trainee spotlight series is Katelyn Wolfgang, a @pitt-pmi.bsky.social graduate student in the @overacrelab.bsky.social lab who studies how a commensal gut bacterium drives the formation of tertiary lymphoid structures in the colon: www.immunology.pitt.edu/news/trainee...
PMI student Emma Mills will defend her thesis entitled "Genomic diversity of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VREfm) sampled from hospitalized patients" on April 16, 2026 at 10:30 a.m.
Congratulations to PMI student @emmamills1.bsky.social from the @dariavantyne.bsky.social lab on her upcoming PhD thesis! 👏 🎉
Now out in AEM @asm.org! 🎉🧪
*High school student-isolated mutants 👉🏻 novel genetic causes of biofilm-associated adaptations
*We learn how diversity arises quickly and is maintained
*EvolvingSTEM enables scalable research in classrooms & promotes scientific literacy
journals.asm.org/eprint/FBU9M...
We are pleased to announce this year’s winners at the 2026 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition hosted by the School of Medicine Graduate studies: First place: Keith Kaufman (Neurobiology/Neuroscience) “We're Not Always the Best Listeners: How Dynamic Brain States Shape What We Hear" Runner up: Lizzie Giacobe (Microbiology and Immunology) "Protecting Pregnancy: How Bacteria Break In" People’s Choice: Lizzie Giacobe
Congratulations to PMI student Lizzie Giacobe on winning second place & people’s choice in the 2026 School of Medicine Three Minute Thesis (3MT)!
Graphic introducing the Department of Immunology's latest trainee spotlight featuring Kellie Spahr, a graduate student in Greg Delgoffe's lab.
Our latest trainee spotlight features Kellie Spahr, a @pitt-pmi.bsky.social graduate student in the @delgoffelab.bsky.social whose research focuses on understanding how exhausted T cells rewire their metabolism. Read the Q&A here: www.immunology.pitt.edu/news
Sean Wang will defend his PhD dissertation entitled “Understanding how host lung factors and the airway chemical environment impact nontuberculosis Mycobacteria (NTM) biofilm formation” on March 24, 2026 at 12:30 pm.
Congratulations to PMI student Sean Wang from Will DePas’ lab on his upcoming thesis defense!
PMI Professor and @asm.org President-Elect @vscooper.micropopbio.org met with congressional staff last week to advocate for science and public health. 👏🏼
CD8+ lymphocytes exhibit a wide variety of functions, both pro- and anti-inflammatory, that contribute to control of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. A balance of these responses is required to achieve success on the level of the granuloma to prevent progression and dissemination, although there does not appear to be a single combination of cytokines that leads to containment. Created with BioRender.
In a #BriefReview, Joanne Flynn discusses the current understanding of roles for different CD8+ lymphocyte subsets in responses against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and implications for novel vaccine and therapeutic development. Read it here: https://ow.ly/9eZo50Yn61C
Conceptual overview of study by Rahimikollu et al. that sheds light on the genetic and molecular differences between two subtypes of rheumatoid arthritis
New research by Jishnu Das, grad students Javad Rahimikollu & Priyamvada Guha Roy et al. sheds light on genetic and molecular differences between two subtypes of #RheumatoidArthritis. Learn more immunology.pitt.edu/news/new-stu... & read the study acrjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
JCI - α4 integrin blockade impairs CD8 T cell neuroimmune surveillance following SIV infection www.jci.org/articles/vie...
#Neuroimmunology #HIV #SIV #Neuroscience #Immunology #JCI #TCell #Integrin #CNS #Research
Given that clonal biofilms of single bacterial species rapidly diversify into niche specialists, how do biofilms of multiple species evolve?
A 🧵 featuring new collaborative pubs:
1. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
2. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
New paper in insight.jci.org by my & Ling Lin’s groups! TB is the most common infectious disease that causes death, causing >1 million deaths globally. HIV is the greatest risk factor for TB, causing worse clinical outcomes for both infections. We studied the effect of SIV infection 1/4
Insights: Kane provides commentary on a new study from Golec et al. (rupress.org/jem/article/...), which reports that a mutation of PI-3 kinase underlying APDS impairs type 2 immunity. rupress.org/jem/article/...
#Immunodeficiency #LymphocyteBiology
Congratulations to @pitt-pmi.bsky.social graduate Morgan Jackson-Strong and faculty member @gottschalklab.bsky.social !
Hello BGSA Community,
The BGSA is excited to invite you to an afternoon of bowling at Arsenal Lanes in Lawrenceville on Saturday, February 21st from 12:00-3:00 PM! Light food and drinks will be provided.
We have 18 spots available, so sign-ups will be first-come, first-served. Grab your spot!
Stay warm out there, everyone!
Graphic announcing that Dr. Dario Vignali has been selected as a 2026 Distinguished Fellow of the American Association of Immunologists.
Graphic announcing that Dr. Sarah Gaffen has been selected as a 2026 Distinguished Fellow of the American Association of Immunologists.
Double distinction! Our chair Dr. Dario Vignali (@vignalilab.bsky.social ) & Dr. Sarah Gaffen (@slg1717.bsky.social), primary faculty in @pittdeptofmed.bsky.social, will be recognized as Distinguished Fellows of @aai.org at #IMMUNOLOGY2026 in April. Congrats, Drs. Vignali & Gaffen! bit.ly/45WuLhl
Jenna Nosek's thesis defense entitled "Accessibility of the HSV-1 genome throughout productive infection" will be held on Thursday, January 22, 2026.
Congratulations to PMI student Jenna Nosek from the DeLuca lab, who will be defending her thesis next week! 👏
From left to right: Harinder Singh, Alok Joglekar, Jishnu Das, and Amanda Poholek. CREDIT: Photography by Rayni Shiring, University of Pittsburgh
Jishnu Das in his office at The Assembly. CREDIT: Photography by Rayni Shiring, University of Pittsburgh.
From left to right: Aaron Rosen, Hanxi Xiao, Jishnu Das, and Javad Rahimikollu. CREDIT: Asher Jones
Read the story behind SLIDE, an interpretable ML tool from Jishnu Das, @poholeklab.bsky.social and colleagues that infers hidden factors to explain biological outcomes—not just correlations. Already uncovering mechanisms in #T1D, #scleroderma, #asthma & more! www.immunology.pitt.edu/news/slidein...
Zachary Ingram's defense will be held on Monday, January 12, 2025 at 3 pm and is titled "Spatiotemporal binding of cyclophilin A and CPSF6 to capsid regulates HIV-1 nuclear entry and integration."
Congratulations to PMI student Zac Ingram from the @zandrea.bsky.social lab on his upcoming thesis defense! 👏
Graphic with headshot announcing Dr. Jishnu Das's promotion to associate professor with tenure.
Congratulations to Jishnu Das for his promotion to Associate Professor with tenure! Learn more about Dr. Das and his work: www.immunology.pitt.edu/news/jishnu-...
Congratulations to PMI student Sean Wang and PMI faculty member Dr. Will DePas on their recent paper!
Xayathed Somoulay's defense will be held on Thursday, January 8, 2025 and is titled "Mechanisms of mammalian orthoreovirus translation."
Congratulations to PMI student Xay Somoulay from the @dermodylab.bsky.social on his upcoming thesis defense!
The Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for the Health Sciences invites you to a series of lightning talks featuring papers that are among the most significant contributions published by Pitt Health Sciences researchers in 2024. What: A series of 10-minute lightning talks, followed by a reception When: Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, 3:30-5 p.m. Where: Alan Magee Scaife Hall West Wing, Room 3785; or Zoom
Dr. Cillo will present his 2024 Cell paper entitled “Blockade of LAG-3 and PD-1 leads to co-expression of cytotoxic and exhaustion gene modules in CD8+ T cells to promote antitumor immunity”
Congratulations to PMI faculty member Dr. Tony Cillo from @pitt-immunology.bsky.social on being selected by the Dean to give a presentation for one of the most significant health sciences publications from Pitt in 2024!
