Insect-Pathogen Interactions
Current Group Members
Brian Lazzaro
Principal Investigator
Brian is a Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor with joint appointments in Cornell's Departments of Entomology and
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
Curriculum Vitae (Apr 2026)
João Carvalho
Undergraduate Researcher
João is doing a Research Honors project to study how Providencia rettgeri establishes chronic infection in D. melanogaster.
Scott Keith
Postdoctoral Researcher
Scott studies endocrine control of the D. melanogaster immune response. Specifically, he uses genetic and genomic tools to decipher the roles of Juvenile Hormone and Ecdysone (20E) in suppressing and potentiating antibacterial immunity.
Ananda Kalukin
Undergraduate Researcher
Ananda is completing his Honors thesis studying genetic variation in the metabolic consequences of chronic bacterial infection for D. melanaogaster.
Kate Browning
Ph.D. Student
Kate's research is focused on translational control and cellular stress in Drosophila immunity. She has developed a new method for tissue-specific profiling of translational activity and is applying it to key D. melanogaster tissues after bacterial infection.
Claire Kurisko
Undergraduate Researcher
Claire is using targeted mutagenesis to study the genetic basis for Serratia marcescens infectivity and virulence to D. melanogaster for her Honors thesis.
Sophia Sushko
Undergraduate Researcher
Sophia is studying the contributions of various D. melanogaster antibacterial peptides (AMPs) to control of infection by diverse bacteria.
Alumni
Previous Postdoctoral Researchers
Kiran Adhikari (2021 – 2022)
Vanika Gupta (2017 – 2022)
Moria Chambers (2012 – 2015)
Parvin Shahrestani (2012 – 2015)
David Duneau (2011 – 2015)
Robert Unckless (2011 – 2016)
Simon Fellous (2008)
J. Gerardo Marquez (2007 – 2010)
Christopher Yourth (2005 – 2007)
Previous Researcher Staff
Melanie Smee (2024 – 2025)
Ashley Frank (2017 – 2022)
Jeremy McIntyre (2017 – 2019)
Gabriel Fox (2016 – 2017)
Charlotte Renne (2015 – 2016)
Chloe Ota (2009 – 2011)
Mark Jandricic (2009 – 2011)
Susan Rottschaefer (2005 – 2015)
Cheryl Seidel (2004)
Graduate Student Alumni
Andrea Darby (Ph.D., Entomology, 2019-2024)
Kathleen Gordon (Ph.D., Genetics, Genomics and Development, 2017-2023)
Radhika Ravikumar (Ph.D., Entomology, 2017 – 2022)
Joo Hyun Im (Ph.D., Genetics, Genomics and Development, 2013 – 2018)
Katia Sotelo-Troha (Ph.D., Comparative Biomedical Sciences, 2012 – 2018;
co-advised with Nicolas Buchon)
Robin Schwenke (Ph.D., Genetics, Genomics and Development, 2011 – 2016)
Virginia Howick (Ph.D., Entomology, 2010 – 2015)
Susan Rottschaefer (M.S., Entomology, 2008 – 2015)
Sarah Short (Ph.D., Genetics and Development, 2006 – 2012)
Jacob Crawford (Ph.D., Entomology, 2006 – 2012)
Madeline Galac (Ph.D., Genetics and Development, 2005 – 2012)
Punita Juneja (Ph.D., Entomology, 2004-2010)
Undergraduate Alumni and High School Researchers
Chloe Lee (2025)
Tyler Thomas (2025)
Jailyn Loor (2023-2025)
Fajr Ali (2022 - 2023, Research Honors)
Jeremy Marcin (2021 - 2023
Destiny Okoro (2020 - 2023; CIHMID Undergraduate Research Experience, Research Honors)
Shravasti Ray (2020 - 2023; Research Honors)
Marco Malo (2022)
Sophia Aredas (2022; CHIMID Microbial Friends and Foes REU)
Dana Vargas (2022; CHIMID Microbial Friends and Foes REU)
Lauren Prudholm (2020 – 2022)
Atharv Garje (2019 – 2021)
Nick Matolka (2019 – 2021)
Ashlyn Amsden (2018 – 2021; CHIMID Undergraduate Research Experience)
Olivia Piscano (2018 – 2019; CHIMID Undergraduate Research Experience)
Amisha Agarwala (2018; intern from Indian Institute of Science Education and Researh, Mohali)
Sayyed Hussain (2017 – 2019; McNair Scholar, CIHMID Undergraduate Research Experience)
Miguel Gomez (2016 – 2019; Research Honors)
Matthew Ming (2016 – 2017)
Sarah Crowe (2015 – 2018; Research Honors)
Manuel Duarte (2015)
Ololade Olawale (2015)
Kenneth Serrano (2015 – 2016)
Tayyaba Arshad (2014 – 2015)
Janilya Baizack (2014 – 2015)
Pratik Chowdhury (2014 – 2015)
Eliana Jacobson (2014 – 2016)
Helen Kim (2014)
Mariam Zade (2014 – 2015)
Ming Zhu (2014 – 2015)
Adesanya Akinleye (2013; intern from City University of New York)
Austin Milunovich (2013; Research Apprenticeship in Biological Sciences program)
Gerardo Ortiz (2013 – 2015)
Alireza Edraki (2013 – 2014)
Yonathan Estrella (2013 – 2015)
Sarah Khalil (2013 – 2015)
Alexandra Gresov (2012 – 2014)
Megan Alzona (2012)
Glen Malaret (2012 – 2015)
Kelly Garcia (2012 – 2015)
Christopher Chow (2012 – 2014)
Michael Fox (2012 – 2015)
Ilana Porges (2011; Research Apprenticeship in Biological Sciences program)
Jamilla Akhund-Zade (2011 – 2014; Research Honors)
Richard Yeom (2010 – 2012; Research Honors)
Christine Tolias (2010 – 2012; Research Honors)
Maria-Rosario Driscoll (2009 – 2010)
Miguel Rosado (2008 – 2010)
Gabriel Lahue (2007 – 2010; Howard Hughes undergraduate scholar, Research Honors)
Rumi Sologuren (2007)
Nicholas Ledesma (2006 – 2008; Research Honors)
Dorian Batt (2006 – 2007)
Grace Leonard (2006)
Sarah Phillips (2005 – 2007)
Michael Bosmeny (2004)
Laura Goetz (2003 – 2004)