Zachary Capriotti, Molecular and Cell Biology and Genetics PhD student, Angel Lin, lab manager, Rachel Van Duyne, PhD, former research associate professor, and Zachary Klase, PhD, former associate professor, were among the co-authors of “HIV-1 Controllers Possess a Unique CD8+ T Cell Activation Phenotype and Loss of Control Is Associated With Increased Expression of Exhaustion Markers,” published in the August 8, 2025, issue of PLoS One. Courtney G. Wallace, PhD molecular and cell biology and genetics ’26, Capriotti and Klase published “HIV Associated Epigenetic Trends and Chronic Diseases: Insights Into the Hidden Burden of Chronic Infection” in the January 16, 2026, issue of Clinical Epigenetics.
Alison Carey, MD, professor of pediatrics and microbiology and immunology, Abhishek Rao, PhD microbiology and immunology ’24, Abigail Onufer, PhD microbiology and immunology ’26, Ogan Kumova, PhD microbiology and immunology ’20, Linda Tu Nguyen Roberts, MD, Neonatology Fellowship, SCHC ’17, Roschanak Mossabeb, MD, clinical associate professor of pediatrics, and Judy Pascasio, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics, authored “Myeloid TLR2 Signaling Amplifies Immunopathology in Influenza-Infected Murine Neonates,” which was published in the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology on March 16, 2026.
Elias El Haddad, PhD, professor of medicine and microbiology and immunology; Irwin Chaiken, PhD, professor emeritus of biochemistry and molecular biology; former College of Medicine staff members Charles G. Ang, PhD biomedical/medical engineering ’20, and Gabriela Canziani; and colleagues from Drexel’s Howley College of Engineering and Computing, College of Arts and Sciences, and the University of Pennsylvania authored “HIV Virion Capturing Liposomes for Therapeutic Vaccination,” which was published in the journal Biomaterials online March 7, 2026.
Garth Ehrlich, PhD, professor, Departments of Microbiology and Immunology and Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, presented at two recent conferences: “The Alzheimer’s Pathobiome Initiative: Using Multiple Global Pan-Domain and Omic Technologies to Interrogate the Link Between Infection and Dementia” at the 2025 Innovations and State of the Art in Alzheimer’s and Dementia Conference held in Berlin, Germany, October 1-2; “Phylopathogenesis: Comparative Genomics of Porphyromonas gingivalis Identifies Clade Structure and Candidate Genes Mirroring Murine Virulence Phenotypes at the 25th anniversary Mark Wilson Conference, held in Nassau, Bahamas, February 6-9, 2026; and “The Pathobiome of the Lyme Disease Brain” at the 2026 ILADS European Conference, held in London, England, April 16-18, where he also served as conference organizer.
Itzhak Fischer, PhD, professor emeritus, and Peter Baas, PhD, professor, both from the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, authored two papers: “Big Tau: Structure, Evolutionary Divergence, and Emerging Roles in Cytoskeletal Dynamics and Tauopathies,” which appeared in the journal Cells on January 27, 2026, and “Analyses of Exon 4a Structure Reveal the Properties of Big Tau Related to Distribution, Function and Aggregation,” which was published in Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience October 28, 2025.
Annette Gadegbeku, MD, associate professor and chief of community health in the Department of Family, Community and Preventive Medicine, and senior associate dean of community health and inclusive excellence, and colleagues from Drexel’s College of Nursing and Health Professions and Dornsife School of Public Health, as well as a colleague from Villanova University, authored “Listening and Responding to Community Voices — The Community Wellness HUB,” which appeared in the October 30, 2025, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Eugenia Lo, PhD, associate professor of microbiology and immunology, recently attended the International Centers of Excellence for Malaria Research workshop hosted by the NIH in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and served as a moderator for a discussion on emerging challenges of non-falciparum malaria in Africa and beyond.
Teresa LuPone, PhD microbiology and immunology ’23, Alexis Brantly, PhD microbiology and immunology ’26, Oluwatofunmi Oteju, PhD pharmacology and physiology ’26, Stephanie M. Matt, PhD, research assistant professor of pharmacology and physiology, Kaitlyn Runner, former lab manager, Emily A. Nickoloff-Bybel, PhD pharmacology and physiology ’21, Michael R. Nonnemacher, PhD, associate dean for graduate biomedical research education and professor of microbiology and immunology, and Peter Gaskill, PhD, associate professor of pharmacology and physiology, authored “High-Throughput High Content Quantification of HIV-1 Viral Infectious Output,” which was published in PLoS One on March 26, 2026.
Vandana Miller, MD, professor of microbiology and immunology, gave an invited international talk, “Realtime Measurements for Closed-Loop Control and Plasma Endpoint Detection for Wound Healing” at the International Conference-Cum-Round Table on Translational Research and Innovation in Beam Technologies, held in Dharmshala, India, in February 2026. Miller also gave several invited talks at Universität Politècnica de Catalunya – BarcelonaTech in Spain in March 2026, on topics including “Non-thermal Plasma for Treatment of Viral Diseases,” “Non-thermal Plasma for Oxidative Stress-Based Stimulation of Immune Responses Against Cancers and Viruses,” and “What Determines Plasma Dose in Plasma Medicine: Plasma Device or Biological Target?”
Gabriele Romano, PhD, assistant professor of pharmacology and physiology, was awarded an American Cancer Society Research Scholar Grant for the project “Immune Profiling and Therapeutic Interventions in PLWH with Cutaneous Melanoma.” He also gave an invited presentation, “HIV Under the Skin: Immune Landscape, Population Analysis, and Pre-clinical Models of Melanoma in People Living With HIV,” at the Pan American Society for Pigment Cell Research 2026 meeting, held March 5-6 in Tampa, Florida. Lindsay Barger, PhD microbiology and immunology ’26, Ashley Saravia, MD ’27, Peter Gaskill, PhD, associate professor of pharmacology and physiology, Jenna Hope, PhD, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology, and Romano were among the authors of “Population Analysis and Immunologic Landscape of Melanoma in People Living With HIV,” which was published in the March 1, 2026, issue of the journal Clinical Cancer Research.
Nielufar Varjavand, MD, professor of medicine and director of the Drexel Physician Refresher/Reentry program, presented a webinar to a group of State Board of Medicine members from Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri and New Jersey on “Educating and Assessing Physicians: Inactive or Remediation” on February 2, 2026.
Himavarsha Yerraguntla, MS interdisciplinary health sciences ’25, Joy Onyekachi, MS interdisciplinary health sciences ’25, Laura Giacometti, PhD, research assistant professor of pharmacology and physiology, Samuel L. Goldberg, MA, research assistant, Jessica Barson, PhD, associate professor of neurobiology and anatomy, and assistant dean for mentoring and support, Barker, Beverly Reyes, PhD, former research associate professor, and a colleague from Thomas Jefferson University authored “Subcellular Interactions of Neuropeptide Y and Corticotropin-Releasing Factor in the Central Nucleus of the Amygdala in the Mouse,” which was published in Neuroscience February 18, 2026.
Faculty Recognition Awards
The Drexel University Office for Faculty Excellence and Academic Culture recently announced the recipients of the 2025-2026 Drexel Faculty Recognition Awards. Several College of Medicine faculty were among the awardees were celebrated during President Antonio Merlo’s Inauguration Week in April.
Provost Award for Faculty Excellence
Sandhya Kortagere, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Vice Dean for Research and Innovation
Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching
Todd Strochlic, VMD, PhD, Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Caitlin Howe, PhD, Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy
Joanne Mathiasen, PhD, Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology