Emory University School of Medicine
Emory University School of Medicine
Department of Microbiology and Immunology

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Department of Microbiology and Immunology

Current Trainees and Their Mentors

Below are the ARTDTP current trainees and their mentors. Visit the ARTDTP alumni page to find out more about our previous trainees.


ARTDTP Training in the Conn Lab

Mina Henes

TRAINEE:
Mina Henes
Graduate Student

Mina completed his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2018, where he investigated antiviral resistance mechanisms. He joined Emory’s MD/PhD Program in 2020 and after completing the first phase of medical training, joined the BCDB program in 2023. His research in the Conn lab aims to blend computational (e.g. advanced molecular dynamics simulations) with experimental biochemistry, microbiology, and structural biology to deepen our understanding of molecular mechanisms underpinning bacterial resistance to antibiotic treatments.

Graeme Conn, PhD

MENTOR:
Graeme L. Conn, PhD
Professor

Graeme L. Conn, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Emory University School of Medicine. His lab uses modern biochemical and biophysical methods to study the structures, interactions and biological functions of biomedically important RNA and protein molecules. Current topics include mechanisms of bacterial antibiotic resistance that arise through ribosomal RNA modification and non-coding RNA-mediated pathogen evasion of host cell innate immune responses.

Dr. Conn received his BSc and PhD at the University of Edinburgh, UK, and followed this with postdoctoral research as a Wellcome Trust International Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. Graeme was a faculty member at UMIST/ The University of Manchester, UK, from 2000 and joined the Department of Biochemistry at Emory as an Associate Professor in September 2008.




ARTDTP Training in the Amara Lab

Jeffrey Morgan

TRAINEE:
Jeffrey Morgan
Graduate Student


Rama Amara

MENTOR:
Rama Amara, PhD
Charles Howard Candler Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine
Professor, Vaccine Center, Emory National Primate Research Center

My laboratory is focused on developing vaccines against infectious diseases. We have more than 27 years of research experience with immunology, pathogenesis, and vaccine development for infectious diseases. We are currently developing vaccines against HIV, SARS-CoV-2, HCV, TB and influenza using the mouse and non-human primate models. Over the past 18 years, we mastered how to effectively educate the host immune system to induce a potent humoral and cellular immunity both in systemic and mucosal sites that is optimal for a specific disease condition. We employ a combination of a variety of vaccine delivery platforms (such as DNA, mRNA, MVA, recombinant proteins, and a probiotic Lactococcus lactis), molecular and synthetic adjuvants (such as GM-CSF, CD40L, alum, 3M-052, dmLT, and AS03), and routes of immunization (intramuscular, intradermal, and oral needle-free vaccination).

A major part of our research is focused on understanding the pathogenesis and immune correlates for HIV/AIDS to develop novel vaccines to prevent HIV infection and therapies to cure HIV. My laboratory played a major role in the preclinical development of the AIDS vaccine that completed Phase 2a human clinical trials in the US. As a co-Program Director, Dr. Amara leads the Emory Consortium for Innovative AIDS Research (ECIAR) for over 12 years. ECIAR is one of the two consortia established by NIH and constitutes multiple investigators at and outside of Emory aimed at developing novel vaccines and cure strategies for HIV/AIDS. Dr. Amara is also working with collaborators in India to develop an HIV vaccine that could be used to control AIDS on the Indian subcontinent. In addition to the development of preventive vaccines, Dr. Amara's laboratory develops approaches to treat HIV infection by combining PD-1 checkpoint blockade therapy with vaccination.

When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, we quickly developed COVID-19 vaccines within few months using our 20+ years of knowledge in HIV/AIDS vaccine work, and showed their efficacy in mice and NHPs. Dr. Amara received a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for this research and was recently featured talking about his COVID-19 vaccine in the season 2 opening episode of "Your Fantastic Mind".

Dr. Amara published over 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts in high-impact journals, serves as a reviewer for multiple high-impact scientific journals, served on multiple NIH study sections including as a chair for a few of them, serves on multiple leadership/advisory committees at Emory and outside of Emory (include NIH) in an advisory role.
Dr. Amara received his doctorate in molecular biology and immunology from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India. His thesis on the immunopathogenesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis, received the prestigious "Best Thesis Award for 1999". He completed his postdoctoral training in the lab of Dr. Harriet Robinson at the Emory Primate Center.



ARTDTP Training in the Wuest Lab

Martina Golden headshot image

TRAINEE:
Martina Golden
Graduate Student

Martina earned her B.S. in Chemistry from the University of St. Thomas where she started her research in antibacterials. She worked with Dr. J. T. Ippoliti to synthesize novel analogs of Linezolid aimed to minimize toxicity associated with long-term tuberculosis treatment. In 2020, she moved to Emory to start her PhD in Chemistry and joined the lab of Dr. Bill Wuest to expand her synthetic skills and knowledge of antibacterials. Her work focuses on synthesizing antibacterial natural products and analogs thereof to understand how their structure is related to their activity. In addition, she studies their mechanism of action alone and in combination with FDA-approved antibiotics. The ultimate goal is to discover a novel mechanism of action or combination therapy to combat the eminent antibiotic resistance crisis.

Contact Martina


wuest

MENTOR:
William Wuest, PhD
Professor
Department of Chemistry

Dr. Wuest is a Georgia Research Alliance Distinguished Investigator and Professor in the Department of Chemistry in the Emory College of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Emory Department of Chemistry Graduate Program. He research focuses on leveraging natural product total synthesis to better understand antibiotic mechanisms of action. His group utilizes synthetic chemistry, microbiology, genetics, and proteomic methods to develop novel compounds to combat bacteria. He earned his B.S. in Chemistry/Business at the University of Notre Dame, his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania, under the advisement of Prof. Amos B. Smith, III and was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab of Prof. Christopher T. Walsh at Harvard Medical School.

Contact Dr. Wuest




ARTDTP Training in the Sarafianos Lab

Grace Nielsen headshot image

TRAINEE:
Grace Nielsen
Graduate Student

Grace Neilsen received her BS in Biochemistry from Brigham Young University in 2021. She worked in a physical chemistry lab as an undergraduate characterizing the thermodynamic properties of complex inorganic materials. After graduating, she turned her attention more towards the biological sciences and entered into the Biochemistry, Cell and Developmental Biology (BCDB) program at Emory University with an interest in studying viruses. She is mentored by Dr. Stefan Sarafianos whose lab has a strong history studying antivirals against HIV, HBV, SARS-CoV 2, and more. Her project there focuses on antiviral resistance in the SARS-CoV 2 main protease, non-structural protein 5 (nsp5). THe current leading antiviral for treating COVID-19 is Paxlovid, developed by Pfizer, Inc.. Paxlovid includes a protease inhibitor called nirmatrelvir (NIR) that mimics the substrate of nsp5. As Paxlovid becomes more widely used, However, resistance to NIR will likely develop as the use of Paxlovid increases in clinical settings. Understanding how specific amino acid substitutions confer resistance will inform the design of the next generation of inhibitors. Accordingly, Grace's project seeks to determine the mechanism of resistance of different mutations in nsp5 and how to overcome this resistance.

Contact Grace


headshot image for Dr. Stefan Sarafianos

MENTOR:
Stefan Sarafianos, PhD
Nahmias-Schinazi Professor and Chair
Department of Pediatrics
Laboratory of Biochemical Pharmacology

Stefan Sarafianos, PhD is a Professor in Pediatrics, Laboratory of Biochemical Pharmacology
Emory University School of Medicine.

Contact Dr. Sarafianos




ARTDTP Training in the Dunham Lab

Taylor Blackburn headshot image

TRAINEE:
Taylor Blackburn
Graduate Student

Taylor graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Fall 2020 with a B.S. in Biochemistry. As an undergrad, she did research in Dr. Amit Reddi's lab aimed at elucidating mechanisms of heme acquisition. Post-graduation, she worked in Dr. Pamela Peralta-Yahya's lab on a project to develop novel GPCR-based chemical sensors. Taylor is currently a chemistry Ph.D. candidate at Emory University in Dr. Christine Dunham's lab. She is working to biochemically and structurally characterize mechanisms of bacterial toxin-antitoxin systems and how these genetic modules contribute to bacterial persistence, which is shown to be a precursor and promoter of antibiotic resistance. In alliance with the mission of ARTDTP, the long-term goal of this work is to identify novel antimicrobial targets that precede and circumvent the development of resistance.

Contact Taylor

Christine M. Dunham, PhD

MENTOR:
Christine Dunham, PhD
Professor
Department of Chemistry

The goal of the Dunham laboratory is to determine the molecular basis for the regulation of protein synthesis, with a special emphasis on dysregulation that occurs during stress conditions/environments, antibiotic usage and disease states. The laboratory uses a combination of innovative structural biological, biochemical, microbiological and biophysical techniques to address key questions of regulatory events that are mediated by complex RNA molecules and toxin proteins and how these influence antibiotic resistance.