By DoM Communications | Date published: April 29, 2026

Inside the 2026 Immunology and Microbiology Program Research Retreat 

On Friday, April 10, 2026, the Immunology and Microbiology Program held its annual research retreat. Keynote speakers at the event included Eric J. Rubin, MD, PhD, adjunct professor of Immunology and Infectious Disease and a tuberculosis researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Kate Fitzgerald, PhD, executive vice chair of the Department of Medicine, professor of medicine, and chief of the Division of Innate Immunity, and Vice Provost for Basic Science Research. 

Faculty speakers included Meng-Ju Wu, PhD, assistant professor of medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Silvia Galván Peña, PhD, assistant professor of Microbiology, Amelia McKitterick, MPH, PhD, assistant professor of Microbiology, Tianmin Fu, PhD, associate professor of Pathology, Evan Bradley, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Emergency Medicine, and Ravi Bharadwaj, PhD, assistant professor of medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology. 

We are proud to additionally announce the winners of the oral presentations, flash talks, and posters at this year’s event.  

Winners include:

Anukriti Mathur, PhD (Fitzgerald Lab) for the outstanding oral presentation titled A novel activator of the NLRP10 inflammasome shapes skin immunity and anti-tumor activity. 
 

Enxhi Ferraj (Kang Lab) for the outstanding oral presentation titled Tissue Surveillance by Tgd17 cells: TCR Sensing of Commensal Fungi Drives Systemic Immunity. 
 

Meng-Ping Lu (Uthaman Lab) for the outstanding oral presentation titled STAT3-Mediated Control of Anaphylactic IgE–Inducing T Follicular Helper Cells. 
 

Sara Cahill (Humphries Lab) for the outstanding oral presentation titled MARCO is an IFN restricted viral entry receptor. 
 

Shrutika Mintri (Gallucci Lab) for the outstanding oral presentation titled Curli amyloids from bacterial biofilms induce hyperactivation in dendritic cells via the non-canonical inflammasome pathway. 
 

Jafira Johnson (Orzalli Lab) for the outstanding oral presentation titled Tonic IFN-kappa signaling in cutaneous antiviral defense. 
 

Katherine Kruckow, PhD (Bogunovic Lab) for the outstanding flash talk titled Intestinal Tertiary Lymphoid Structures at Single Cell Resolution. 

Gavin Fujimori (Sassetti Lab) for the outstanding poster titled Linking Mycobacterium Tuberculosis infection outcomes with transcriptional networks in genetically diverse mouse macrophages. 
 

Calvin Johnson (Pitarresi Lab) for the outstanding poster titled Tumor Derived PTHrP Molds an Immunosuppressive Tumor Microenvironment. 
 

Sara Cahill (Humphries Lab) for the outstanding poster titled Macrophage metabolic reprogramming facilitates viral entry and pyroptosis.