Our Team

Sara Cherry

John W. Eckman Professor of Medical Science

Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Microbiology and Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics  

Scientific Director, High-throughput Screening Core  

Director, Program for Chemogenomic Discovery, PENN Center for Precision Medicine 

Jorge Acuña

CAMB Graduate Student

Studies SARS-CoV-2 entry mechanisms

Rachel Braun

BMB Graduate Student

Studies the role of the mRNA decay pathway in viral infection

Kaeri Martinez

CAMB Graduate Student

Studies diverse bunyaviruses and their interactions with hosts

Mark Dittmar

CAMB Graduate Student

Studies henipaviruses and antivirals against them

Tamanna Srivastava

BMB Graduate Student

Studies the role of innate immunity in viral infection

Andoni Nolasco-Ramirez

CAMB Graduate Student

Studies innate interferon response to diverse bunyaviruses

Jaeseung Lee, PhD

Focuses on the role of autophagy in SARS-CoV-2 and developing anti-viral drugs

Max Ferretti, PhD

(Joint with Dr. Kristen Lynch)

Uses transcriptomics, bioinformatics, and molecular biology to understand how RNA viruses manipulate hosts to promote infection

Guangda Shi, PhD

Studies nucleoside metabolic changes in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and novel antiviral strategies

Priyanka Bhakt, PhD

Studies flaviviruses and antivirals against them.

Smita Bhutda

Studies role of NF-kB signaling pathway in SARS-CoV2 infection for developing novel therapeutic drug targets.

Beth Gordesky Gold, PhD

Explores virus-host interactions in Drosophila

Jesse Hulahan

Studies antivirals against emerging viruses

Swechha Mainali Pokharel

Studies antivirals against emerging viruses

Yue Li

Studies antivirals against emerging viruses

Glenn Hogan

Studies cell-mediated immunity against influenza and SARS-CoV-2

Benjamin Gabriel, PhD

Studies innate immune responses against SARS-CoV-2Studies innate immune responses against SARS-CoV-2

Ashley Abraham

Daniel Correia Nazeri

Sophie Jatto