former lab members
Research Associates
Karla Passalacqua earned a B.A. in Art & Art History and an M.A. in Painting from Wayne State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Microbiology & Immunology from the University of Michigan in 2007, and has engaged in public health training at the Emory Rollins School of Public Health until she joined the Wobus and O'Riordan labs from 2014 - 2020. Her research explored how the inhibition of host cell deubiquitinase enzymes changes the infection dynamics of the intracellular pathogens Listeria monocytogenes and Murine Norovirus, and the hijacking of cell metabolism during virus infection. She is now a science writer at Henry Ford in Detroit.
Abimbola "Ola" Kolawole earned his B.Sc. in biology from the University of Lagos in Nigeria. He obtained his M.S. in biology from Central Michigan University in 2006 and his Ph.D. from Wright State University in 2011. He joined the lab as a postdoc in 2012 and was promoted to research associate in 2015, and research associate professor in 2019. His research in the lab involved modelling norovirus evolution, developing an orally susceptible human norovirus mouse model, and establishing human intestinal enteroid as a new culture system for human astroviruses. He is currently a research associate professor at Wright State University in Ohio.
Postdoctoral fellows
Marta Gonzalez-Hernandez was a postdoc in the Wobus lab from 2012 - 2014. She received her B.S. in Chemistry from the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico in 2005 and her Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Michigan in 2012. Her research in the lab was focused on characterizing the role of deubiquitinating enzymes in norovirus infection. She is currently a scientist at Rubicon Genomics, Ann Arbor, MI.
(and yes, she is related to Mariam Gonzalez-Hernandez)
Michael Elftman received his B.S. in Microbiology from Michigan State University in 2003 and his Ph.D. in Immunology and Infectious Disease from Pennsylvania State University, College of Medicine in 2009. His research in the lab focused on the interactions between murine norovirus and dendritic cells. Dr. Elftman worked as an Assistant Professor of Biomedical and Diagnostic Sciences at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Dentistry until December of 2016 and is now an Assistant Professor of Foundational Science at Central Michigan University.
Stefan Taube received his B.S. in Genetics with Microbiology from Queen Mary and Westfield College in 1998, his M.S. in Applied Molecular Biology of Infectious Diseases from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1999, and his Ph.D. from the Robert Koch-Institut in 2006. His research in the lab focused on identifying MNV receptors and binding sites on the viral capsid and the roles of these interactions in MNV infection, both in tissue culture and in the natural host, the mouse. He also made the seminal observation that human norovirus can infect Rag/gamma chain knock-out mice, which led to the development of the first small animal model for human norovirus. Dr. Taube is currently an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Virology and Cell Biology at the University of Lübeck and is closely collaborating with the Wobus lab.
Andrew Diamos obtained a PhD in Microbiology from Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Wobuslab from March - October 2020 on metabolic rewiring of cells by norovirus.
Carmen Mirabelli earned her master in cellular and molecular biology at the University of Rome-Tor Vergata, Italy, and obtained her PhD in Virology at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, where she studied virus-host interactions during poliovirus infection. Enterovirus research was also the focus of her first post-doc at the Rega institute for medical research in Leuven, Belgium, where she mostly worked on the establishment of an in vitro cell model for rhinovirus-C infection and in vivo mouse model for enterovirus-A71. In the Wobus lab, she will try to optimize in vitro models for human norovirus infections and approach the exciting field of virus-host microbiome interactions. With the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, Carmen is also working hard to better understand and ultimately stop SARS -CoV-2 replication.
Roberto Cieza earned his B.Sc. in Biology in Lima, Peru at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH). After working for a few years at the Naval Medical Research Unit 6 (NAMRU-6) as part of the Influenza surveillance program he moved to Galveston, Texas, where he completed his Ph.D. in Microbiology at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB Health). He investigated the role of E. coli adhesion and invasion to the intestinal epithelium in pathogenesis under the mentoring of Alfredo Torres, PhD. After moving to Michigan, he has been working jointly in the Young laboratory and the Wobus laboratory using human intestinal organoids (HIO) and enteroids (HIE) as a model to study enteric diseases. He worked in the Wobus lab from Feb 2020 until Dec 2021 exploring the transcriptional changes in human intestinal enteroids (HIE) upon Astrovirus and Norovirus infection through RNA-seq and scRNA-seq, with the overall goal of identifying similarities and differences in the intestinal epithelial responses to these viruses.
Twitter: @CiezaCusato
GitHub: https://github.com/rjcie
John Tranter is originally from Stoke-on-Trent in the British Midlands. He studied BSc (Hons) Pharmacology at the University of Liverpool 2012-2016 and stayed on to complete his Master of Research (MRes) in Biomedical Sciences and Translational Medicine 2016-2017. In 2017, he moved to Edinburgh for his PhD, with the thesis title being that of 'microRNA-122: release, uptake and isomiRs in drug-induced liver injury', which he completed in 2021. He joined the lab from Sept - Dec 2021 to study how conformational changes in the murine norovirus capsid impact pathogenesis.
Graduate Students
Mariam B. Gonzalez-Hernandez was a Graduate Student in the Immunology Program at University of Michigan and graduated from the Wobuslab in 2014. She previously received a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry at Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico. Her thesis research investigated how MNV crosses the epithelial barrier to reach its targets (the macrophages and dendritic cells). Her work identified that efficient MNV infection relies on microfold (M) cells to overcome the intestinal barrier. Mariam worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University for one year and is now a scientist at Meso Scale Diagnostics.
(and yes, she is related to Marta Gonzalez-Hernandez)
Jeffrey Perry earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Michigan in 2012. He previously obtained his a B.S. in Biochemistry and Biology from Eastern Michigan University. His thesis research focused on elucidating mechanisms of norovirus entry and identified a role for deubiquitinase activity in norovirus infection. Jeff worked as a scientist at Swift Biosciences in Ann Arbor for one year until joining the laboratory of Dr. Tsai, University of Michigan, as a postdoctoral fellow in 2014.
Janelle Stokely earned her B.Sc. in biological sciences from University of Michigan-Dearborn, and an M.P.H in Hospital and Molecular Epidemiology with a certificate in Public Health Genetics and Hospital Infection Prevention from the University of Michigan School of Public Health in 2016. Her research in the lab involved diagnostic and statistical analysis of co-infection with human norovirus and C. difficile in a cohort of hospitalized patients at the University of Michigan Health System. She then joint the State of Michigan Health Lab in Lansing.
Juliana Bragazzi Cunha is a veterinarian with experience in large animal practice. She obtained her M.Sc. working with porcine enteric caliciviruses in the Laboratory of Comparative Virology in Oswaldo Cruz Institute/Fiocruz. In 2010, she joined the Wobus Lab as a PhD student and since then has been conducting research into how MNV crosses the intestinal epithelial barrier to gain access to its target cells and identify new cellular proteins that mediate MNV binding and entry. She obtained her PhD in Microbiology in 2016 and then worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Omary at the University of Michigan.
Eric Bartnicki worked in the lab from January 2016 to July 2017 while obtaining his M.S. in Microbiology and Immunology. His research project focused on identifying viral factors that improve infectivity in the human norovirus B cell model. He then joined NYU for graduate school.
Holly Turula graduated from Portland State University. During and after her degree she worked as a technician at Oregon Health and Science University, and then Thomas Jefferson University investigating CD8 T cell responses to cytomegalovirus infection. She joined the Wobus Laboratory in 2014 as a PhD student in Immunology. Her work in the Wobus lab focused on the role of natural secretory immunoglobulin in murine norovirus pathogenesis. She graduated in November 2018. Following a breif postdoc in the lab of Joel Swanson, she then joint the faculty of Western Michigan University as an assistant professor.
Irene A. Owusu obtained a B.Sc. in Zoology and an M.Phil. in Microbiology both from the University of Ghana and was working in the lab while a PhD candidate in Molecular Cell Biology of Infectious Diseases at the University of Ghana . She joined the lab in November 2018 as a visiting scholar until May 2021. Her research investigated Akt signaling during norovirus infection.
Dylan Bartikofsky earned his B.Sc. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Boise State University. He joined the Wobus lab in April 2020 and received his MS in Cellular and Molecular Biology in Dec 2020. He continued working in the lab as a research technician until summer 2021. His research involved studying Human Astrovirus pathogenesis using the Human Intestinal Enteroid (HIE) model. 'On the side', he was also working on collaborative projects on new ways to stop SARS-CoV-2 infections.
Stefan Diehl earned his B.Sc. in Biosciences at the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg in Germany. Afterwards, he continued with his studies in Heidelberg joining the master’s program Molecular Biosciences – Major ‘Infectious Diseases’. He worked in the Wobus lab from Feb - Dec 2021 to perform his master thesis studying the interaction between human noro- and astroviruses, commensal bacteria and the intestinal epithelium.
Rootjikarn (Emma) Moonrinta is originally from Thailand. She received a B.A. in biology from Bowdoin College where I studied mRNA transport in Candida albicans. She worked in the lab from January 2022 to April 2023 as part of the M&I master's program at the University of Michigan. Her research project focused on characterizing human astrovirus tropism in human intestinal enteroids.
Qianyu Pan grew up in China, and received her B.S. in biological sciences from Colorado State University. She worked in the lab from Jan 2022 to April 2023 on the impact of butyrate on human astroviruses infection in polarized epithelial monolayers.
Pedro Soares Porto is a Ph.D. student from the Federal University of Goiás (UFG) in Goiânia, Brazil. He started studying virology in the last year of his graduation in biotechnology, and since then, he has been interested in the cell entry mechanisms used by viruses. In his Ph.D., Pedro has been trying to use bioinformatics to find cellular receptors and attachment factors of different human viruses. He worked in the Wobuslab from November 2022 to August 2023 and was working on validating some of his prediction for astroviruses in the Wobuslab.
Lab manager
Tracey Shultz was the secret force behind the lab that kept us well-stocked, organized and happy!
Undergraduate Students
We have had lots of help from talented undergraduate students. Please let us know what you are doing now, so we can keep current on your success!
Jason Houdek worked in the lab during the summer of 2007. He then became a graduate student at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
Anna Jenks was a UROP student that worked in the lab from September 2007 to April 2008 while obtaining her B.Sc. degree at University of Michigan.
Kristen Yetming worked in the lab from January of 2008 to May of 2009 before starting graduate school at Pennsylvania State University Hershey College of Medicine.
Sagar Patel worked in the lab from January 2008 to August 2009 before becoming a medical student at American University of the Caribbean - School of Medicine.
Adnan Pirzada performed undergraduate research in the laboratory during the winter semester of 2009 towards his B.Sc. degree from the University of Michigan.
Hyun Soo Park was a UROP student that worked in the lab from April 2009 to August 2010 while obtaining her B.Sc. degree at the University of Michigan.
Patrick Hooper worked in the lab from November 2009 - September 2010 while obtaining his BSE degree at the University of Michigan.
Charles Ko worked in the lab from February 2009 - May 2011. He is now a medical student at Michigan State University.
Mohammed Ahmed worked in the lab from May 2009 - May 2011. He is now a medical student at the University of Illinois.
David Chapel performed his honors thesis research in the lab from January 2010 - May 2011. He is now a medical student at Columbia University.
Tom Liu was a UROP student that worked in the lab from June 2011 through October 2012 while earning his B.Sc at the university of Michigan.
Joshua Mayoral was a summer undergraduate researcher from Northern Arizona University who worked in the lab as part of his pre-MSTP experience in 2012.
Ryan Yucha worked in the lab from Sept 2012 to May 2015 while earning his B.S. in Microbiology at the University of Michigan. He was a tremendous help for over 2 years in the lab and is now working as a technician in Kathy Collins lab at UM.
Madeline Lewis is obtaining her B.S. in Microbiology from University of Michigan. She was working on characterizing a panel of monoclonal antibodies against murine norovirus from May 2015 - May 2016.
Alexandra (Lexie) Pry joined the lab in April 2015 and has been working with Holly on understanding how murine norovirus crosses the epithelial barrier until her graduation in April 2016 with a B.S. from Wayne State University.
Julianne Fava was obtaining her B.S. in Microbiology with a minor in Spanish from the University of Michigan. She joined the lab in April of 2016 and worked with Holly on murine norovirus until April 2017.
Rob Roesgen was working as a laboratory assistant until May 2017. He finished High school in Germany before joining the lab in August of 2016. He provided support to everyone with their experiments until starting medical school in 2017.
Sophia Svoboda obtained her B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Michigan. She joined the lab in May 2015 while an undergrad. She then worked as a technician in the lab characterizing a panel of monoclonal antibodies against murine norovirus and was working with Ola on norovirus and astrovirus - host interactions.
Jacob Edelman obtained his B.S. in History from the University of Michigan. He joined the lab in January of 2016 and was working with Ola on human norovirus until July 2018.
Rob Maddox obtained his B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Michigan. He joined the lab in October of 2015 and was working with Karla studying the role of deubiquitinases in murine norovirus infection until July 2018.
Jacob Arche was a senior obtaining his B.S. in Microbiology and Minor in Music from the University of Michigan. He was a Rank Leader of three years in the Michigan Marching Band. He joined the lab in January of 2018 and was working with Karla on murine norovirus until Dec 2018 before becoming a research assistant at UM.
Benancio Rodriguez earned his A.S.A in General Sciences and Arts from Muskegon
Community College in 2016. He joined the Wobus lab in July of 2018 after working in the Freddolino Lab for two years. He worked closely with Carmen on a virus-bacteria interaction project. He obtained his B.S. in Biochemistry and a minor in Spanish in spring of 2020. Benancio started graduate school in the fall of 2020 to earn his Ph.D. in Microbiology at UCLA.
Alexis Brewster is an undergraduate student pursuing a B.S. in Microbiology. She was working with Ola on human astrovirus infections in human intestinal enteroids in 2019. She also works as a Lab Assistant in the David H. Sherman lab in the LSI. After graduation, she plans to pursue a Master's in Biology.
Anuoluwapo "Anu" Kolawole worked in the Wobuslab for 3 summers (2017-2019) while obtaining her B.S. in Human Biology and minor in Sociology from Michigan State University. She worked with Carmen on human norovirus infection of BJAB cells. Go Green!
Sydney Townsend was a Biology Student at North Carolina A&T State University and a SROP (Summer Research Opportunity Program) student working in the Wobuslab in the summer of 2019. She learned about virology and worked with Ola on human astrovirus and norovirus infection in intestinal enteroids.
Ari Garner is an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan majoring in Microbiology. She is originally from Chicago, IL. She worked in the Wobuslab from fall 2021 to spring 2023 in collaboration with Adam Hafner on norovirus-induced metabolic reprogramming of infected cells.
High School Students
Fatima Khan was a student at Washtenaw International High School (WIHI) in Ypsilanti, Michigan. She visited the laboratory once a week after school to find out what we do and try out a few common techniques routinely performed in the lab.
