Abdulelah Alqarzaee
5th year Ph.D. student

Advisor: Vinai Chittezham Thomas, Ph.D.
Research: Regulation of stationary phase cell death in Staphylococcus aureus
Education: M.S., Quinnipiac University, CT

Blake Bertrand
2nd year Ph.D. student

Advisor: Tammy Kielian, Ph.D.
Research: TBD
Education: B.S., Saint Louis University, MO 

Logan Bulock
6th year Ph.D. student

Advisor: Ken Bayles, Ph.D.
Research:Characterizing metabolic heterogeneity within S. aureus biofilms
Education: B.A., Augustana College, SD

Kathryn Cole
1st year Ph.D. student

Advisor: James Talmadge, Ph.D.
Research: TBD
Education: B.S., Bellevue University, NE

Srijanee Das    
1st year Ph.D. student

Advisor: Howard Gendelman, M.D.
Co-Advisor: Benson Edagwa, Ph.D.
Research: TBD
Education: B.S./M.S., St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, India

Elizabeth DelMain
4th year Ph.D. student

Advisor: Ken Bayles, Ph.D.
Research Area:Regulation and expression of virulence genes in Staphylococcus aureus
Education: B.S., University of Saint Thomas, MN

Linsey Donner 
6th year Ph.D. student

Jennifer Endres
4th year M.S. student

Advisor: Ken Bayles, Ph.D.
Research Area: TBD
Education: B.S., Iowa State University, IA

Tessa Firestone
1^st year Ph.D. student

Advisor: Caroline Ng, Ph.D.
Research: Cell stress responses and Artemisinin resistance in the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum.
Education: B.S., University of Pittsburgh, PA

Valerie Fousek-Schuller
1st year M.S. student

Advisor: Xu Luo, Ph.D.
Research: TBD
Education: B.S., Wayne State College, NE

Advisor: Marilynn Larson, Ph.D.
Research: TBD
Education: B.S., Northern Arizona University, AZ

Advisor: Rakesh Singh, Ph.D.
Research: TBD
Education: M.S, Birla Institute of Technology & Science

Advisor: Scot Ouellette, Ph.D.
Research: Chlamydial microbiology: metabolism and gene regulation 
Education: B.S., Wayne State College, NE

Kathleen Hecker
2^nd year Ph.D. Student

Advisor: Elizabeth Rucks, Ph.D.
Research: Chlamydial interactions in host organoid models

Jonathan (Yoni) Herskovitz
3rd year Ph.D. student
M.D./Ph.D. Scholars Program

Advisor: Howard Gendelman, M.D.
Research: HIV: latency and gene therapy in macrophages
Education: B.S., University of California, Los Angeles

Advisor:  Geoffrey Talmon, M.D.
Research: Microvillus Inclusion Disease
Education: B.S., University of Nebraska - Omaha

Advisor: Tammy Kielian, Ph.D.
Research: TBD
Education: M.S., University of Nebraska - Omaha

Aaron Jensen 
1st year Ph.D. student

Advisor: Scot Ouellette, Ph.D
Research: TBD
Education: B.S., University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Samuel Johnson
4th year Ph.D. student

Advisor: Siddappa Byrareddy, Ph.D.
Research Area:The gut-brain axis and persistent viral reservoir in HIV pathogenesis
Education: B.S., Kansas State University, KS

Lisa Jorgenson
4th year Ph.D. student

Advisor: Elizabeth Rucks, Ph.D.
Research: Host-pathogen interactions between Chlamydia trachomatis and eukaryotic cells.
Education: B.S. from University of South Dakota, SD

Jian Li
3rd year Ph.D. student

Advisor: Xu Luo, Ph.D.
Research: Apoptosis in colorectal cancer
Education: B.M., Tongji University, People's Republic of China

Stephen Luebker
4th year Ph.D. student

Advisor: Scott Koepsell, M.D., Ph.D.
Research: : BRAF inhibitor resistance in melanoma
Education: B.S., University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Edward Makarov
3rd year M.S. student

Advisor: Santhi Gorantla, Ph.D.
Co-Advisor: Larisa Poluektova, M.D., Ph.D.
Research: Zika Virus pathogenesis in Humanized mice & HIV-1 in the newly developed IL34 mice
Education: B.S., University of Nebraska - Omaha

Matthew Martens
3rd year Ph.D. student

Advisor: Paul Davis, Ph.D.
Research: parasitology, focusing on drug development and mechanistic studies in Toxoplasma gondii.
Education: B.S., University of Nebraska - Omaha

Caitlin Molczyk
1st year Ph.D. student
M.D./Ph.D. Scholars Program

Advisor: Rakesh Singh, Ph.D.
Research: Pancreatic cancer microenvironment with focus on chemotherapy resistance
Education: B.S., Wayne State College, NE

M. Jane Morwitzer
3rd year Ph.D. student

Advisor: St. Patrick Reid, Ph.D.
Research: Ebola virus-host protein interactions
Education: B.S., University of Nebraska - Kearney

Insha Mushtaq
5th year Ph.D. student

Advisor: Hamid Band, M.D., Ph.D.
Research: Role of endocytic traffic regulators EHD1/2 and their interacting partners in ErbB2 receptor tyrosine kinase traffic and oncogenic function in breast cancer
Education: M.S., University of Kashmir, India

Omalla (Allan) Olwenyi
4th year Ph.D. student

Advisor: Siddappa Byrareddy, Ph.D.
Co-Advisor: Courtney Fletcher, Pharm.D.
Research: Chronic Immune Activation, HIV/SIV persistence and the Cure: Immunological Mechanisms Associated with Latency
Education: M.S., Makerere University, Uganda

Opeoluwa Oyewole
3rd year Ph.D. student

Advisor: Keer Sun, Ph.D.
Research: TBD
Education: M.S., University of Illinois at Chicago

Advisor: Siddappa Byrareddy, Ph.D.
Research: TBD
Education: M.S., South Dakota State University

Advisor: James Talmadge, Ph.D.
Co-Advisor: Zaid Al-Kadhimi, M.D.        
Research: TBD
Education: B.S., Saint Mary’s College of California

Advisor: Paul D. Fey, Ph.D.
Research: TBD
Education: M.S., University of Nebraska Medical Center, NE

Advisor: Rey Carabeo, Ph.D.
Research: Molecular Pathogenesis
Education: M.S., Microbiology, Texas Tech University

Advisor: Marilynn Larson, Ph.D.
Research: N/A
Education: B.S., Purdue University - West Lafayette, IN

Advisor: St. Patrick Reid, Ph.D.
Research:  TBD
Education: M.S., University of Calcutta, India.

Advisor: Paul Davis, Ph.D. 
Research: Parasitology, Focusing on drug discovery in Toxoplasma gondii and Leishmania donovani.
Educaton: B.S., University of Nebraska - Omaha

Thomas Schulze
3rd year Ph.D. student

Advisor: Paul Davis, Ph.D. 
Research: TBD
Education: M.S., University of Nebraska-Omaha

Zachary Scott
1st year Ph.D. student

Advisor: Prabagaran (Praba) Narayanasamy, Ph.D.
Research: TBD
Education: M.S., University of Nebraska-Omaha

Ryan Singh
3rd year Ph.D. student

 Advisor: Vinai C. Thomas, Ph.D.
Research Area: physiological significance of bacterial NOS in Staphylococci
Education: B.S., University of Chicago, IL

Amanda Stastny
2nd year Ph.D. student

Advisor: Rey Carabeo, Ph.D.
Research: TBD
Education: B.S., University of Nebraska at Lincoln

Advisor: Elizabeth Rucks, Ph.D.
Research: TBD
Education: B.A., Carleton College, MN 

Advisor: Paul D. Fey, Ph.D.
Research: TBD
Education: B.A., Lawrence University, Appleton, WI. 

Advisor: Paul Davis, Ph.D.
Research: TBD
Education: B.A., University of Nebraska-Omaha

Advisor: Kai Fu, M.D., Ph.D.
Research Area: Lymphoma
Education: M.S., Shandong University, People's Republic of China

Advisor: Elizabeth Rucks, Ph.D.
Research: TBD
Education: B.S., South Dakota State University, SD

Advisor: Scot Ouellette, Ph.D.
Research: Proteomic turnover in the context of chlamydial developmental cycle progression
Education: B.S., University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD

Yongji Zeng
5th year Ph.D. student

Advisor: Jixin Dong, Ph.D.
Research: Hippo signaling and Cancer
Education: M.M.S., Shandong University, China