2024

Research: Powassan virus is a tickborne virus endemic in the US, where the number of reported human infections increases each year. Severe disease often includes development of encephalitis and may inflict long term and life altering effects on the brain. My research focuses on how the virus is maintained in nature and I am investigating whether the reported rodent reservoir is actually a part of the transmission cycle with ticks. Additionally, I am interested in further exploring Powassan virus pathogenesis in a mouse model.

Research: Enterococcus faecalis is a Gram-positive pathobiont that infects many distinct body sites due to its antibiotic resistance, environmental tolerance, and biofilm formation.
Protein-based regulation of these phenotypes is highly studied, but uncharacterized
transcription factors and sigma factors remain. Further, very little is known about the
role of noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) in E. faecalis gene regulation. The E. faecalis
strain OG1RF is a widely-used model for studying the E. faecalis core genome, and

Research: 

Research: Trimethylguanosine synthase (TGS1) plays an essential role in RNA biology, where it catalyzes hypermethylation of the 7-methylguanosine cap to 2,2,7-
trimethylguanosine cap. This epitranscriptomic modification licenses select host
and viral mRNAs for a specialized translation pathway that bypasses mTOR
inhibition. While the importance of this pathway is only starting to be recognized,
it has been implicated in important diseases including cancer and HIV-1 infection.

Research: Max is studying macrophages in the tumor microenvironment of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) and how macrophages can act as a method of targeting TNBC. Max is researching LYVE1+ macrophages, a subset of tumor-promoting macrophages that are also important for removing apoptotic cells in TNBC tumors through efferocytosis. Max is interested in how this efferocytosis impacts the gene expression of LYVE1+ macrophages and how that might be connected to their tumor-promoting phenotype. 

Research: My thesis research aims to investigate the spatial interactions between immune
populations and NK cell therapies within the tumor microenvironment, using
spatial image analysis techniques and organoid culture systems with both
humanized mouse models and clinical samples. Ultimately, we hope to understand
how these interactions correlate with clinical outcomes.

Research: In my thesis work, I aim to understand the underlying causes of systemic age-
associated phenotypes in mice, including cell senescence, cell exhaustion, and inflammaging, characterized by a basal increase in inflammatory cytokines like TNFa and IFNg. My current interests lie in the aged bone marrow, where hematopoietic stem cells skew toward the myeloid lineage and away from the
lymphoid lineage, promoting the production of inflammatory cells capable of
seeding tissues throughout the body. Using bone marrow chimeras, it is possible

Research: Characterization of Innate Immune Sensing of Oropouche Virus in
Trophoblasts Oropouche virus (OROV) is a neglected, emerging arbovirus primarily transmitted by biting midges in Latin America. Though largely underrecognized, OROV causes
recurrent outbreaks of febrile-like illness and poses a growing threat due to
expanding vector ranges, limited surveillance, lack of targeted treatments, and
evidence for vertical transmission. My project investigates the innate immune
mechanisms by which human trophoblasts detect and respond to OROV infection

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