PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Dr. Hart is an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, affiliated with the Lyme and Tickborne Diseases Research and Education Institute. He received his Ph.D. in Biology from the State University of New York at Albany with the New York Department of Health where he studied immune evasion by B. burgdorferi. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Yale School of Medicine where he comprehensively mapped host-pathogen and host-vector interactions.

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW

Dr. Nima earned her Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame, where she studied the mechanisms of artemisinin resistance in Plasmodium falciparum, integrating population genomics, in vitro drug assays, and functional validations. 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 Lyme disease genesis.

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW

Dr. So earned her Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where she studied antigenic variation in Trypanosoma to inform improved diagnostics and surveillance. She now studies how B. burgdorferi interacts with host ligands to sense the environment, and explores the interactions and resulting signaling cascades. By combining experimental and computational approaches, she aims to understand the mechanisms underlying host sensing and bacterial adaptation.

RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIST

Jiani Wang is a 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 bioinformatics, using computational tools and biological research to address Lyme disease.

ScM STUDENT

Shuyuan Hu is a first-year ScM student in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology. She earned her B.S. in Biochemistry and Statistics from the University of Washington. She is passionate about exploring protein interactions between Borrelia and host receptors using both novel computational tools and in vitro experiments.

ScM STUDENT

Jay Fender is a first-year ScM student in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology. He earned his B.S. in Biology from the University of NC Asheville. He is using genetic manipulation in Borrelia to explore the molecular interactions facilitating host sensing by the bacteria that cause Lyme disease.