This month the Oestreich Lab welcomed graduate student Gayathri Dileepan to the team! She is an MD/PhD student in OSU’s Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) and the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program (BSGP). We are so glad to have you!

Our team would not be complete without lab manager and research assistant Robert Warren’s contributions to all our recent lab achievements, from cloning to genotyping to being our star mouse colony manager. As such, he has earned co-authorships on both the lab’s recent Nature Communications and Journal of Immunology publications. Congratulations, Rob!

Graduate student Jasmine Tuazon was awarded an NIH/NIAID Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research service F30 fellowship (impact score 10, percentile 2)! This award will be used to fund the remainder of her Ph.D. research studying Eos-STAT5 phosphorylation mechanisms in T cells, followed by a portion of her Med 3 year upon returning to medical school in 2024. Congratulations, Jasmine!

At the 2023 MI&I Retreat at the Mohican Lodge and Conference Center, postdoctoral scientist Srijana Pokhrel gave a talk and presented a poster on her work studying the impact of IkZF factors on memory T cell populations. Way to represent, Srijana!

Devin Jones and her family moved to Boston to start her new position as an industry postdoctoral research with Merck. Congratulations, Devin!

The Immunology and Immunotherapeutics Graduate Program (I2GP), directed by Dr. Oestreich, brought in their first class of Ph.D. students in Fall 2023. We are excited to see the great research and accomplishments from this group. Welcome!

Lab manager and research assistant Robert Warren was certified for hazardous shipping for all members of Microbial Infection and Immunity. This critical responsibility ensures that everyone in MI&I can safely send out samples and reagents as needed and keeps everything running smoothly. Thanks for all your help and initiative, Rob!

Dr. Devin Jones successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis, titled, Regulation of Cytotoxic Programming in CD4+ T Cells by the Ikaros Zinc Finger Family of Transcription Factors. Congratulations, Dr. Jones! We are excited to see where you go next.

Dr. Oestreich and graduate student Jasmine Tuazon raised money to bike 35 and 24 miles in this year’s Pelotonia, respectively. Jasmine represented the Spin Doctors peloton and Ken the MII-ghty Bucks peloton. Together with Jasmine’s dad, Ritchy, they raised $5,616 for cancer research! Go Bucks!

Graduate student Melissa Leonard is awarded a 2023-2024 pre-doctoral T32 fellowship from the OSU Infectious Disease Institute. This fellowship will help Melissa in her studies of Aiolos in the context of influenza infection. Congratulations, Melissa!