About the Center

Vanderbilt Immunobiology staff at SIS

 

Trainees at the Southeast Immunology Symposium at Duke University, 2022

Welcome to the Vanderbilt Center for Immunobiology (VCI).  The immune system and inflammation are found to influence an ever widening range of pathologies, including infections, diabetes, cancer, and others. The primary goal of the VCI is to support and grow basic science of immunology and aid its application to human disease.  The VCI is led by Dr. Jeffrey Rathmell and works across Vanderbilt University and Medical Center to foster and promote an interactive and collaborative research environment and graduate education in immunology.

 

Who Are We?

 

VCI Program Committee

 

Holly Algood

 Holly M. Scott Algood, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Disease

Associate Professor of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology

My laboratory is interested in mucosal immunology including pathogen- host interactions, the microbiome and the long term impacts of chronic inflammation at the mucosa.

 

 

Alexander Bick, MD, PhD

Alexander Bick, M.D., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Clonal hematopoiesis, genetics and inflammation

 

 

 

Rachel Bonami vci program

Rachel Henry Bonami, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Medicine; Division of Rheumatology & Immunology

Assistant Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology

Division of Microbial Pathogenesis

Ruben Martinez

Ruben Martinez, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology

Immunogenetics, primary immunodeficiencies, inborn errors of Immunity and infectious diseases

 

 

Jim Cassat

James E. Cassat, M.D., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics

Associate Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology

Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Associate Director, Institute for Infection, Immunology and Inflammation

Interaction between host and pathogen during invasive bacterial infections

Jim Connelly, M.D.

Jim Connelly, M.D.

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics

Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, immunodeficiency, and inborn errors of immunity

Jonathan Irish

Jonathan M. Irish, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Cell & Developmental Biology

Assistant Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology

 

Cancer, precision medicine, computational biology, machine learning, cell signaling, chemical biology, single cell tools

Sebastian Joyce

Sebastian Joyce, Ph.D.

Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology

Dorothy B. and Theodore R. Austin Chair in Pathology

 

Antigen presentation and recognition by immune cells

 

John Karijolich, PhD

John Karijolich, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology and Biochemistry

My laboratory is interested in nucleic acid sensing and self vs non-self discrimination

 

 

 

Annet Kirabo

Annet Kirabo, D.V.M., M.Sc., Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Medicine, Clinical Pharmacology

Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics

 
Tae Kon Kim

Tae Kon Kim, M.D., Ph.D.

Department of Medicine, Hematology/Oncology

Checkpoint immunotherapy and leukemias

 

Janet Markle

Janet Markle, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology

Inborn errors of immunity, Molecular and cellular immunology, pediatric immune-mediated diseases

 

 

Amy Major

Amy S. Major, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Medicine

Associate Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology

 

Immunological mechanisms of autoimmunity in atherosclerosis

 

Denis Mogilenko

 Denis Mogilenko, Ph.D.

Assisstant Professor of Medicine

Assistant Professor of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology

Immunometabolism in obesity and aging.

 

 

Mary Philip

Mary Philip, M.D., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology

Assistant Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology

Cancer, tumor immunology, T cells, epigenetics, autoimmunity, differentiation, single-cell analysis, flow cytometry

 

Dawn Newcomb

 Dawn Newcomb, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Assistant Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology

Role of sex hormones in inflammation in asthma

 

 

Heather Pua

Heather H. Pua, M.D., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology

 

Lung, miRNA, exRNA (extracellular RNA), extracellular vesicles, allergy, asthma, Th2

 

John T. Wilson

John. T. Wilson, Ph. D.

Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering