About Us

Christopher LaRock, PhD
Associate Professor

Chris received a B.S. in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from the Lyman Briggs College of Michigan State University and Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Washington in Seattle. His thesis with Drs. Carleen Collins and Brad Cookson examined how Yersinia pestis (cause of bubonic plague) shut down immune signaling. His postdoctoral work with Dr. Victor Nizet at the University of California, San Diego focused on the innate immune response to group A Streptococcus. He joined the faculty of Emory University in 2017 as an Assistant Professor of Microbiology & Immunology and Infectious Diseases and in 2022 was promoted to Associate Professor. He also is affiliated with the Emory Antibiotic Resistance Center, Emory Microbiome Research Center, Center for Childhood Infections and Vaccines (CCIV), and the IMP and MMG graduate programs.

SOM Faculty Profile

Marr Carr, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher

Mary received her B.S. in Biology in 2019 from the Mississippi University for Women, Columbus, MS. In 2024, she earned her Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi Medical Center, studying the role of bacterial virulence factors in Streptococcus pneumoniae corneal infection. She is currently investigating additional role of Streptococcal proteases at different body sites and the resulting host immune response. Her other research interests include neutrophil function and the use of virulence factor inhibitors as therapeutic agents

Ananya Dash 
Graduate Student, GDBBS/IMP 

Ananya received her I.MSc. in Systems Biology from University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India. Her Master’s thesis focused on identifying the essential genes regulated by iron-dependent transcription factors, IdeR and FurA. She worked with Prof. Sharmistha Banerjee, studying the regulation of urease operon by these proteins to develop a strategy to prevent the neutralization of the acidic environment of phagosomes where M. tuberculosis resides inside a host. Ananya joined the Immunology and Molecular Pathogenesis (IMP) program in 2021. She is currently investigating how GAS virulence factors modulate host innate immune responses.  

Stephanie Guerra 
Graduate Student, GDBBS/MMG 

Stephanie received her B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Puerto Rico in Humacao in 2020. As an undergrad, she worked with Dr. Ezio Fasoli as a part of the MARC U-Star program in the University of Puerto Rico in Humacao. Her research explored microbial redox reactions as a tool to examine metabolic processes using fluorescent probes. In 2021, Stephanie started as a Ph.D. student in the MMG program at Emory University. In the LaRock lab, her research focuses on understanding changes in GAS gene expression during infection in response to host inflammation.

Jacob Sherman
Graduate Student, GDBBS/MMG

Jacob received his B.S. in Molecular Biology from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, United Kingdom in 2020. For his undergraduate thesis, he worked under the supervision Dr. Ulrich Schwarz-Linek on identifying binding targets for gram-positive bacterial adhesins. After his receiving his Bachelor’s, Jacob worked as a Research Specialist in Dr. Erin Scherer’s laboratory at the Hope Clinic of Emory University from 2020-2023, where his work focused on how antibody glycosylation in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection can impact COVID severity and MISC. In 2023, he started the MMG PhD program at Emory, and joined the LaRock Lab in 2024 to begin his thesis work. In the LaRock lab, Jacob’s work focuses on GAS adhesion to keratinocytes before and after pyroptosis.

Anders Johnson
Graduate Student, GDBBS/MMG

Anders received his B.S. in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from the University of Vermont in 2018. As an undergrad, he worked in the lab of Dr. Eyal Amiel researching the role that glycogen plays in the activation process of B cells. He also worked with the Vermont Department of Health Laboratory to improve detection methods for Campylobacter jejuni and Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae. In 2018, he became a Ph.D. student in the MMG program at Emory University. His research examines the role that exotoxins play in the pathogenesis of GAS during human infection.

Shyra Wilde
Graduate Student, GDBBS/MMG

Shyra received her B.S. in Health Sciences from Arizona State University in 2016. She then spent two years working in the lab of Kenneth Roland at the Biodesign Institute Center for Immunotherapy, Vaccines, and Virotherapy. Her research focused on Salmonella enterica serovars Typhi and Typhimurium factors contributing to the invasion of epithelial and microfold cells, leading to improved vaccine strategies (Infection and Immunity), and on Salmonella- and toxoid- based vectors to immunize poultry against Clostridium perfringens (bioRxiv; PLoS One; PeerJ). In 2017 Shyra started as a Ph.D. student in the Emory MMG program. Her research focuses on identifying virulence factors in GAS that contribute to pathogenicity and resistance to antibiotics and immunomodulatory drugs. Shyra is now a postdoctoral fellow at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital with Dr. Jason Rosch.”

Summer Bushman
Work Study Student, Emory College

Summer is an undergraduate junior at Emory University pursuing a B.S. in Biology and a B.A. in French Studies. She joined the LaRock lab in June 2020 through Emory’s Scholarly Inquiry and Research Experience (SIRE) program. She is looking at the conservation and evolution of Streptococcus pyogenes virulence factors. Summer is now a Fulbright Scholar at the Luxembourg Institute of Health (en route to Ph.D. studies).

Emily Heathcote
Research Technician

Emily received her B.A. in Biochemistry from Vanderbilt University in 2021. She worked with Dr. Hemant Badgandi, studying ANKMY2 interaction with guanalyl cyclases in Zebrafish and binding partners for MAGE-B2, a cancer testis antigen. In the summer of 2019, she worked with Dr. Kyle Murphy at Rutgers studying CD44 and mTOR signaling. Emily joined the LaRock lab in July of 2021 and is studying the interaction between GAS and the immune response, focusing on SpeB and it’s targets.

Sophia Hwang
Undergraduate Student

Sophia is an undergraduate junior at Vanderbilt University pursuing a B.S with a double major in Cellular and Molecular Biology / Medicine, Health, and Society. She joined the LaRock lab in June 2021 through Emory's Laney Graduate School Summer Opportunity for Academic Research (LGS-SOAR) program. In the lab, she is looking at the inhibition of Pseudomonas virulence factors through various non-traditional immunotherapeuties for the treatment of opportunistic and CF infections.

 Now: Undergraduate Student, Vanderbilt

Katherine Leigh Olivares

KayLeigh joined the lab as a visiting student for a research experience over her summer break in 2018. She received her Bachelors of Science in Neurobiology and Physiology from Purdue University in 2017. Her project examined the immune response and virulence properties of group A Streptococcus infection under anti-IL-6 and anti-IL-1 immunotherapy.

Now: MD student, Wayne State University School of Medicine

Danny (Jungmin) On

Danny received his B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Vanderbilt University in 2016. He then spent a gap year in the Bordenstein Lab at Vanderbilt researching Wolbachia, an obligate intracellular bacteria that skews host reproduction (Nature). In collaboration with Yousuf Khalifa, MD of the Emory Eye Center, he researched the infection pattern of bacteria in the eye and developed an ex-vivo model of endophthalmitis over the summer of 2018.

Now: MD student, Medical College of Georgia

Claire Qu
Undergraduate Student

Claire is an undergraduate sophomore at Emory University (Oxford College) pursuing a B.S. in Biology. During high school, she worked in the lab of Dr. Natasha Kirienko at Rice University and focused on the interactions between mitochondria surveillance pathways in C. elegans. She joined the LaRock lab in June 2021 through Emory’s Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program and is currently examining how GAS impacts wound healing. 

Raedeen Russell, PhD

Raedeen received her B.S. in Biology from Saint Augustine’s University and M.S in Biology from Georgia State University. She was contracted as an ORISE fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct serological testing on HPV. She later continued her education at Morehouse School of Medicine where she pursued a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences and an M.S in Clinical Research. Her doctoral work was conducted under the tutelage of Dr. Francis Eko, where she explored the role of exosomes in chlamydial immunity (Microbiology; BMC Immunology). As a postdoctoral fellow she examined the immunopathogenesis of group A Strep infection.

Now: MD student, Morehouse School of Medicine

Jenna Sands

Jenna received her B.S. in Biology from Emory University in 2018. During her undergraduate career, she worked in the lab of Dr. Jacques Galipeau investigating the efficacy of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapies for treating liver fibrosis. She completed her undergraduate honors thesis in the lab of Dr. Anita Corbett investigating the mechanisms insulin regulates the RNA binding protein PABPN1 in C2C12 muscle cells to better understand the pathogenesis of oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD). In 2018, Jenna started as a research specialist to examine role of IL-1 family cytokines during group A Streptococcus infection and digoxin treatment (JBC, 2019).

Now: MD student at the Emory School of Medicine.

Anika Sinha

Anika received her B.S. in Biology with a minor in Global Health, Culture, and Society from Emory University in 2020. Previously in her undergraduate career, she worked with the Joanna Goldberg lab where she investigated the interactions between Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. Anika joined the lab in summer 2019 for an Honor's thesis to study the activation of immune defense proteins by Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Laken Smothers

Laken graduated in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology with a minor in Anthropology. In the lab she examined immune activation by the proteases of Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Now: MD student, Tufts University School of Medicine

Keya Trivedi 

Keya was an undergraduate junior at Emory University pursuing a B.S. in Biology. Previously in the summer after her first year, she interned at the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology lab at the Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara, working on sustainable phosphorous management in the soil. She joined the LaRock lab in April 2019 and is currently working on immunity-directed therapeutics against group A Streptococcus.

Now: Graduate student, UC San Diego Bioengineering