2025:
September 2025: Shonna McBride, Jake Kohlmeier, and Cheryl Day are being promoted to Professors of Microbiology and Immunology with Tenure, effective September 1, 2025.
March 2025: Rafi Ahmed, PhD, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, was named a 2025 Fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Academy, one of the highest honors in cancer research.
February 2025: Dr. Jeremy M. Boss, Professor and Chair of Microbiology and Immunology, was selected for the 2025 Dean’s Distinguished Faculty Lecture and Award.
January 2025: The department is pleased to welcome Dr. Ammar Zafar as Associate Professor.
2024:
October 2024: Christopher Scharer, PhD, Associate Professor in Microbiology and Immunology, received the Emory School of Medicine the Hidden Gem Award for 2024.
October 2024: Christopher LaRock, PhD, Associate Professor in Microbiology and Immunology, received the Emory School of Medicine 1% Award for his work ,“GSDMA roles in skin innate immune defense”. The Emory 1% Awards honors and recognizes faculty who have received study section scores in the top 1 percentile on a grant proposal.
October 2024: The first Max Cooper Prize in Immunology was awarded to 3 structural biologists, whose groundbreaking research has paved the way for novel disease treatments and revealed new insights into the immune system. The recipients of Max Cooper Prize in Immunology are: Pamela J. Bjorkman of California Institute of Technology (center in photo); K. Christopher Garcia of Stanford University (third from left); and Ian A. Wilson of Scripps Research Institute (fifth from left). They were honored at a ceremony on September 12, 2024.
September 2024: Congratulations Luisa Cervantes Barragan, PhD, for her promotion to Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, effective September 1, 2024.
September 2024: Congratulations to Luisa Cervantes Barragan, PhD, Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, and Alison Kohlmeier, PhD, Secondary Faculty in Microbiology and Immunology, on being selected for the 2024 Emory SOM Researcher Appreciation Day 2024 Emory School of Medicine Researcher Appreciation Day.
August 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Chaoran Li for receiving the 2024 ICIS-Regeneron New Investigator Award for Excellence in Cytokine & Interferon Research.
July 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Chaoran Li for receiving the 2024 AAI ASPIRE Award. Recipients receive complimentary meeting registration, a $2,000 cash award, and travel support to the AAI annual meeting for presentation of their research and the award presentation.
June 2024:
May 2024: Congratulations Dr. Joanna Goldberg for being one of ten Emory faculty to be named an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow for 2023, the largest class of Emory faculty to ever receive the prestigious lifetime honor. These scientific leaders represent the fields of biology, engineering, neuroscience, psychology, chemistry, statistics and physics and embody scientific excellence while fostering trust in science.
March 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Seema Lakdawala for being named a 2024 National Academy of Sciences Kavli Fellow. She was honored at the Kavli Frontiers of Science symposia on March 7-9th in Irvine, California.
Feb 2024: Cody Elkins, IMP graduate student in the Li Lab, won a trainee Abstract award at IMMUNOLOGY2024 and was one of the Major Symposia speakers at this year’s meeting.
March 2024: Cheryl Day, PhD, Associate Professor at the Emory Vaccine Center and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology received a new NIH R01 grant titled,"Identifying critical determinants of vaccine-induced cellular and humoral immunity from birth through childhood in HIV-exposed and unexposed children". This is an MPI R01 with Jennifer Slyker from University of Washington.
Dr. Day also published a paper, "Active tuberculosis is associated with depletion of HIV-specific CD4 and CD8 T cells in people with HIV," in AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses, March 2024.
January 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Anice Lowen who was inducted as a fellow into the 2024 class of the American Academy of Microbiology by the American Society for Microbiology.
2023:
October 2023: Microbiology & Immunology hosted a symposium highlighting the research of the department’s Postdoctoral Fellows on Friday, October 27, 2023. Keynote Speaker, Dr. Julie Pfeiffer, gave a talk titled, “How bacteria and circadian rhythms influence enteric virus infecKon”. Postdocs presented a series of research talks. Symposium flyer
October 2023: Congratulations to Drs. Cheryl Day, Seema Lakdawala, and Anice Lowen on being selected for SOM Researcher Appreciation Day for 2023.
September 2023: Congratulations to Dr. Luisa Cervantes-Barragan (Microbiology and Immunology) and Dr. Byron Au-Yeung (Department of Medicine, Winship Cancer Institute) for their Emory University Research Committee (URC) grant award, "Identification of a subpopulation of naive T cells with increased colitogenic potential in human and mice."
September 2023: Dr. Veronika Zarnitsyna has been promoted to Associate Professor effective September 2023. Congratulations, Dr. Zarnitsyna!
September 2023: Dr. Rama Amara has been promoted to Associate Director of Research Strategy, Emory National Primate Research Center. Congratulations, Dr. Amara!
September 2023: Dr. Anice Lowen was named Principal Investigator of Centers of Excellence for Infuenza Research and Response (CEIRR) of Emory University. Dr. Lowen will also be promoted to Professor beginning September 2023. Congratulations, Dr. Lowen!
July 2023: Congratulations to Dr. Chaoran Li for his 2023 AAI Early Career Travel Award!
2022:
October 2022: Department Retreat
October 2022: Dr. Jeremy Boss was awarded the Emory School of Medicine Academic Integrity Award for 2022.
October 2022: Dr. Rafi Ahmed was inducted into the Emory Millipub Club in 2022.
October 2022: Dr. Phil Rather received the Emory School of Medicine 2022 "Hidden Gem Award."
October 2022: Dr. Cheryl Day received a visiting faculty appointment at the University of Nairobi. Read full story in Notable News semi-annual newsletter.
September 2022: Seema Lakdawala, PhD, joined Microbiology and Immunology as Associate Professor. Dr. Lakdawala brings expertise in transmission and viral pathogenesis along with the ferret model for influenza infection and expertise in microscopy.
September 2022: Dr. William Shafer received the Emory School of Medicine Dean's Eminent Investigator Award.
September 2022: Drs. Marcin Grabowicz, Christopher LaRock, and Christopher Scharer have been promoted to Associate Professor. Congratulations on these promotions!
April 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Chris LaRock for his 2022 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Award for Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease.
February 2022: Congratulations to Bill Shafer, PhD, for completing his 40th year at Emory!
February 2022: Congratulations to Charlie Moran, PhD, and Dr. Ed Mocarski, PhD, whose appointments as Professor Emeriti have been approved by the Board of Trustees. Thank you for your wonderful contributions to our department over the decades. We look forward to your future contributions in your new roles.
January 2022: Bill Shafer, PhD, was re-appointed (3-year terms) to the Editorial Board of two ASM journals: Infection and Immunity as well as Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
2021:
December 2021: Cheryl Day, PhD, received funding from the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) to be lab director for an Immunology Specialty Laboratory (ISL). Dr. Day has expertise in human cellular immune profiling and key collaborators include Steve Bosinger for transcriptomics and Chris Scharer for epigenetics.
September 2021: Congratulations to Chaoran Li, PhD, for his R01 grant, “Cytokine and Metabolic Regulation of Adipose-tissue Tregs”.
September 2021: Congratulations to Luisa Cervantes-Barragan, PhD, for her R01 grant, “Role of Dietary Fiber-Microbiota Interactions in the development and function of small intestinal T cells”.
2020:
June 2020: Congratulations to Anice Lowen, PhD, for her CEIRS contract titled, “Sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 transmission to humidity and temperature.”
July 2020: Congratulations to Bill Shafer, PhD, for the 5-year renewal of his T32 training grant, "Antimicrobial Resistance and Therapeutic Discovery Training Program". The Antimicrobial Resistance and Therapeutic Discovery Training Program (ARTDTP) program provides comprehensive educational and research opportunities to interested PhD students enrolled in programs of the Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (GDBBS).
June 2020: Dr. Phil Rather received a VA Merit Review award, “Manipulating a virulence switch to combat Acinetobacter baumannii infections;” and an MP3 grant, “Characterizing the molecular regulation of Acinetobacter baumannii phenotypes to understand its spread dynamics in a host community.”
May 2020: Congratulations to Dr. Anice Lowen for her CEIRS contract titled, “Sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 transmission to humidity and temperature.” Dr. Lowen is the project lead for this one-year contract with principal investigator Dr. Walt Orenstein and the Emory/UGA Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance. The goal of the NIAID Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS) program is an integrated network of centers designed to bring together multidisciplinary teams of researchers that perform surveillance related research integrated with research on host immune response, viral pathogenesis, and the factors that control the emergence and transmission of influenza viruses.
May 2020: Dr. Rama Amara and fellow researchers at the Emory National Primate Research Center, Emory University, have received a two-year, $582,000 grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to develop a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2.
2019:
November 2019: Congratulations to Dr. Joshy Jacob for receiving the Emory School of Medicine Dean’s Imagine, Innovate, and Impact (I3) Nexus grant titled, “Broad-spectrum antivirals to combat influenza, Dengue and Zika viruses”. The Imagine, Innovate, and Impact Awards (I3)– were launched in 2018 to encourage connections between disciplines and accelerate the pace of discovery.
September 2019: Congratulations to Dr. John Altman for receiving the Hidden Gems award by the Emory School of Medicine "for his work in education and training the next generation of scientists".