PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Dr. Hart is an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology. He received his Ph.D. in Biology from the State University of New York at Albany in conjunction with the New York Department of Health where he examined the mechanisms of complement evasion by B. burgdorferi. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Yale University School of Medicine where he used highly curated yeast display libraries to comprehensively map host-pathogen and host-vector interactions.

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER

Dr. Nima earned her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of Notre Dame, where she focused on the molecular mechanisms of artemisinin resistance in Plasmodium falciparum, integrating population genomics, in vitro drug assays, and functional validations t. She has published in mBio and other leading journals, and has been awarded competitive fellowships. Dr. Nima is passionate about translational infectious disease research and is currently exploring the molecular interactions facilitating host sensing and disease genesis in Lyme disease.

RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIST

Jiani Wang is a recent graduate of the Master of Bioinformatics program at Johns Hopkins University. She earned her B.S. in Molecular & Cellular Biology with honors from the University of Glasgow. Her research spans molecular biology and computational bioinformatics, including enzyme expression and SARS-CoV-2 genetic analyses. She is passionate about exploring the intersection of computational tools and biological research to address complex biomedical challenges.