IDBI-SPUR Mentors for 2026

Faculty research mentors are senior members of SLU-IDBI with active research programs housed in Saint Louis, MO, specifically the North and South Campuses of Saint Louis University.

IDBI-SPUR mentors have been asked to provide a brief description of the research opportunities in their lab, preferences of previous training/experience, and if they are willing to mentor a full-time or part-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow.

IBDI-SPUR applicants should use the following information to rank their top 5 IDBI-SPUR mentor choices. The available mentors are categorized into broad disciplines in drug and biotherapeutic discovery and development. Please note that some mentor's research interests fall into more than one category.

Please click on the small arrow to the right of each potential mentor's name to learn about their research and mentoring interests.

Note: If you are a current member of an IDBI research lab and want to stay for the summer as an IDBI-SPUR Fellow, please list only that faculty member as your choice of mentor and state that in your personal statement as well.

Send questions to blythe.janowiakmulligan@slu.edu

Infectious Disease

Getahun Abate, MD PhD - Infectious Diseases

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine

Doisy Research Center on the South Campus

Research Interests

The development of new drugs against mycobacterial diseases is one of Getahun Abate’s key research interests. His lab works closely with the Hoft lab, and has the following capacities: screening new drugs against bacillus Calmitte Guerin (the attenuated TB vaccine) using a rapid growth inhibition assay, testing drugs on reference strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and M. avium, studying anti-mycobacterial activities against intracellular mycobacteria using human macrophages from healthy donors, testing interactions of new drugs with first-line anti-TB drugs against extracellular and intracellular mycobacteria, studying the effects of new drugs on mycobacterium-specific immunity and testing the cytotoxicity of new drugs on THP-1 (human) and J774.A1 (murine) macrophage cell lines. His lab also has a protocol to test the anti-TB activities of new drugs in murine TB model.

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either a part-time or a full-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow for the 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Robin Chamberland, PhD - Medical Molecular Microbiology

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Medical Molecular Microbiology, School of Medicine

SLU Hospital on the South Campus

Research Interests

Robin Chamberland, Ph.D., directs the clinical microbiology labs at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital. She assists SLU-DDG investigators who may need access to clinical samples and provides clinical perspective to SLU-DDG investigators. Chamberland studies antimicrobial resistance in S. aureus, a relatively common commensal bacterium that causes opportunistic infections with growing drug resistance. She also studies bacterial toxins and their interaction with the host innate immune system. She focuses on the setting of S. aureus necrotizing pneumonia.

Website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Robin-Chamberland

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either a part-time or a full-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow for the 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Alexei Demchenko, PhD - Chemistry

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Chemistry, School of Science and Engineering

Monsanto Hall on the North Campus

Research Interests

The Demchenko laboratory, Glycoworld, has trained more than 150 researchers and has developed many innovative tools for the synthesis and application of carbohydrates (glycans or glycoconjugates) in five major areas:

New synthetic reagents and building blocks;
Reactions for stereocontrolled glycosylation;
Expeditious strategies and automated technologies for oligosaccharide synthesis;
Biomedical studies on the development of glycopharmaceuticals; and
Integration of glycans and nanomaterials in carbohydrate nanotechnology.

Some of these methods have been applied to the synthesis of tumor-associated glycosphingolipids to study their roles in metastasis of cancers and in pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases; glycoconjugates of important bacterial pathogens Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus for vaccine development; glycopeptides as LPS antagonists for treating septicemia and for the development of Alzheimer's disease therapeutics; human milk oligosaccharides to study their functions, and carbohydrate-based imaging reagents, enzyme inhibitors, and personalized vaccine adjuvants.

Website: https://glyco-world.com/

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either a part-time or a full-time (40 hours/week) IDBI-SPUR Fellow for the 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Maureen Donlin, PhD - Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine

Doisy Research Center on the South Campus

Research Interests

Maureen Donlin's lab is interested in developing new anti-fungal drugs, with an immediate focus on compounds that can inhibit Cryptococcus neoformans, a pathogen affecting immune-suppressed patients. She is a bioinformatician with extensive experience in biochemistry, molecular genetics, biostatistics and computer programming who has provided bioinformatics and biostatistical support to the departments of biochemistry and microbiology at Saint Louis University for 17 years. She is well versed in the SPSS statistical package, and programming skills include PERL, MySQL, PHP, HTML and the statistical language R. She has conducted the primary analysis of microarray, RNAseq and proteomics data from several different species in collaboration with many different groups. She is applying these skills to identify the target(s) of the highly effective inhibitors of C. neoformans that she has identified through her screening efforts. Donlin is also the director of the SLU master’s program in bioinformatics and computational biology and can help identify potential interns for higher order data analysis needs of the SLU-IDBI and partners.

Website: https://biochem.slu.edu/people/donlin/

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either a part-time or a full-time (40 hours/week) IDBI-SPUR Fellow for the 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Duana Grandegenett, PhD - Institute for Molecular Virology, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine

Doisy Research Center on the South Campus

The Tavis Lab’s primary focus is antiviral drug discovery targeting the Hepatitis B Virus ribonuclease H (RNaseH). The lab has developed a suite of biochemical and cell-based assays to evaluate how inhibitors of the RNaseH affect the enzyme and viral replication. Its key resource is a small but chemically diverse set of nuclease inhibitors and their analogs. The lab routinely conducts cytotoxicity assays using MTS (mitochondrial function), neutral red retention (lysosome function), crystal violet retention (DNA accumulation, usually interpreted as cell growth), and LDH release (plasma membrane integrity) to gain a more comprehensive view of how its compound affect the cell. The lab collaborates with medicinal chemists in the United States, France, Greece and China and are actively pushing forward two anti-HBV RNaseH hit-to-lead optimization projects. They work closely with other members of the SLU-IDBI, including Feng Cao, Ph.D.; Maureen Donlin, Ph.D.; Lynda Morrison, Ph.D.; and Getahun Abate, Ph.D. Through these collaborations, the lab has demonstrated that the inhibitors in its library can have high selectivity for one virus or cellular organism over the others, opening a pathway to antimicrobial development targeting nucleases.

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either part-time or full-time (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Long Ping Victor Tse, PhD - Molecular Microbiology and Immunology

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine

Doisy Research Center on the South Campus

Research Interests

The Tse lab focuses its research on virology, particularly coronavirus, dengue virus, and adeno-associated virus. Virology is one of the most exciting fields in biology, from the on-going COVID-19 pandemic to viral-based gene and cancer therapies. In the Tse Lab, we seek to understand viral pathogenesis and transmission (zoonotic, enzootic and pandemic) at the molecular level to inform and develop new guidelines, vaccines, and antivirals for public health. In addition, we engineer pathogenic viruses into harmless nanoparticles for use in gene therapy and vaccine development.

Evolution is the best engineer in nature. Inspired by the elegance of evolution, we use multiple innovative technologies, including saturation-mutagenesis, directed-evolution, molecular engineering, CRISPR genome-wide screening, and multiple–omics sequencing, to recapitulate, direct, and accelerate the natural evolutionary process in a controlled laboratory environment. These methods are used to:

Dissect each facet of viral infection and improve our understanding of viral pathogenesis and transmission, and
Convert such knowledge to engineer viruses into novel nanoparticles for medical uses.

Website: https://www.tselabvirology.com/

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either part-time or full-time (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Ann Tollefson, PhD- Molecular Microbiology and Immunology

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine

Doisy Research Center on the South Campus

Research Interests

Ann Tollefson's research focuses on the development of adenoviral vectors as gene therapy and anti-cancer agents, as well as the study of adenovirus infection, treatment, and prevention. She works extensively with Karoly Toth on collaborative projects around adenovirus and other viral vectors and animal model development.

Website: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Lhkx3C0AAAAJ&hl=en

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either part-time or full-time (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Karoly Toth, DVM - Molecular Microbiology and Immunology

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine

Doisy Research Center on the South Campus

Research Interests

Karoly Toth’s primary focus is the testing of anti-adenoviral drugs, and other antivirals. Toth's expertise is in vivo drug testing; they developed the Syrian hamster model to study human adenovirus infections. Syrian hamsters (unlike mice and rats) are permissive for human adenoviruses, and develop pathology similar to that in humans. They use this model to evaluate the therapies against disseminated and respiratory adenovirus infection. Toth also develops Syrian hamster models for other viruses, including enteric norovirus and SARS-CoV-2. Over the past several years, Toth has conducted over 60 studies with 17 drug candidates as a contractor to the NIH Animal Models for Infectious Disease program, forming collaborations with academic and industrial laboratories in the USA and Europe.

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either part-time or full-time (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Nathan Ungerleider, PhD - Molecular Microbiology and Immunology

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine

Doisy Research Center on the South Campus

Research Interests

The Ungerleider Lab studies the Epstein-Barr Virus, a tumor-associated pathogen that has established a lifelong infection in nearly the entire world’s population. EBV promotes the long-term survival and proliferation of host cells and is a causal factor in a number of lymphomas and epithelial cancers. Their work explores how EBV replicates, how infection drives tumorigenesis, and seeks to identify targetable vulnerabilities in EBV-associated cancers.

Website: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=c-jeyBkAAAAJ&hl=en

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either part-time or full-time (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2025

Willing to mentor either a part-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow (20 hours/week) or a full-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Metabolic Diseases

Andrew Butler, PhD - Pharmacology and Physiology

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Pharmacology and Physiology, School of Medicine

Schwitalla Hall on the South Campus

Research Interests

The Butler lab performs research on the integrative physiology of obesity and diabetes, with a focus on the role of melanocortin receptors expressed in the nervous system. The "central nervous melanocortin system" is the canonical neural circuit that integrates signals of energy balance secreted from adipose tissues, the GI tract and pancreas to govern appetite and metabolism. His research has contributed to our knowledge of two melanocortin receptors expressed in the nervous system, one of which (MC4R) is a target for developing drugs against obesity. They have also identified a "micropeptide", adropin, involved in the control of liver metabolism and healthy aging of the nervous system. Current research focuses on the role of adropin in regulating glucose and fatty acid metabolism, and whether this micropeptide can lead to treatments for cognitive impairment associated with aging and metabolic disease.

Website: https://biochem.slu.edu/ccr/investigators/name/andrew-butler/

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either part-time (20 hours/week) or full-time (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Vincenza Cifarelli, PhD - Pharmacology and Physiology

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Pharmacology and Physiology, School of Medicine

Schwitalla Hall on the South Campus

Research Interests

Vincenza Cifarelli has developed a multidisciplinary research program that addresses the role of vascular and lymphatic endothelium in tissue homeostasis and remodeling, inflammation and metabolic health. Area of interests are gut-liver axis, adipose tissue disfunction in metabolic disease and cardiac inflammation. The Cifarelli Lab conducts studies in rodent model of disease as well as in people with genetic variants in the lipid transporter CD36.

Website: https://www.slu.edu/medicine/medical-education/graduate-programs/biomedical-sciences/pharmacology-physiology/about-us/cifarelli-lab.php

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either part-time (20 hours/week or 30 hours/week) or full-time (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026. Prefer rising sophomores majoring in biology.

Ajay Jain, MD - Pediatric Gastroenterology, Pediatrics

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Pediatrics, School of Medicine

SLU Hospital on the South Campus

Research Interests

Research Interests

Daniel Warren's research program centers on understanding how animals are able to meet the physiological challenges imposed by their environments and by their natural and evolutionary histories. He uses an integrative approach to understand why some animals, particularly pond turtles, are better able to tolerate dramatic changes in oxygen availability, temperature and body-fluid pH. At the cellular level, his studies focus on the heart, which must and does continue to function under conditions (low oxygen and extremely low pH) that would otherwise be fatal to other vertebrates, including mammals. These include studies of cardiac pH regulation and the effects of pH on the cellular processes involved in excitation-contraction coupling, the sequence of events that starts with electrical depolarization of the cell and culminates in mechanical shortening. Warren aims to improve the understanding of how these processes evolved throughout evolution and to better characterize new or existing solutions to physiological problems that many kinds of organisms face. Warren's work may also lead to the identification of targets for therapeutic intervention to treat human diseases associated with inborn errors in metabolism and ischemia, a pathological condition that occurs most notably in the heart and brain when blood flow (and, therefore, oxygen and glucose delivery) is restricted during myocardial infarction and stroke, respectively.

Website: https://thewarrenlab.org/

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either a part-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow (20 hours/week) or a full-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Willing to mentor either a part-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow (20 hours/week) or a full-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Aubin Moutal, PhD - Pharmacology and Physiology

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Pharmacology and Physiology, School of Medicine

Schwitalla Hall on the South Campus

Research Interests

Research Interests

The Sengupta Lab is interested in deciphering how different muscles are coordinated for diverse movements, how this coordination is refined over development and how this coordination is disrupted in motor diseases. Generating movement is essential for survival. Even simple movements like walking require precise coordination between different body parts that is not a trivial feat. Just like toddlers slowly get better at walking, motor coordination improves as the animal matures. Motor coordination is specifically disrupted in several motor diseases and spinal cord injury, yet therapy remains limited.

In vertebrates, neurons in the spinal cord help generate movements and are modulated by inputs from the brain. The Sengupta Lab uses zebrafish, a tiny, transparent vertebrate to study motor coordination. Spinal neurons in zebrafish are homologous to other vertebrates like mice and humans but are significantly less in number and complexity providing a tractable system to investigate motor control. Moreover, the transparency at early stages allows easy use of in vivo techniques to record from neurons (electrophysiology, calcium imaging) and manipulate them (optogenetics) during natural behaviors (swimming, hunting). Using these techniques, the Sengupta Lab aims to determine how zebrafish coordinate their fins and body during swimming and how this coordination develops. By defining functions of distinct populations in the brain and spinal cord, we aim to provide tangible targets for much-needed therapy.

Website: https://sites.google.com/view/senguptalab

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either a part-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow (20 hours/week) or a full-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Willing to mentor either part-time (20 hours/week) or full-time (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

John Tavis, PhD - Molecular Microbiology and Immunology

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine

Doisy Research Center on the South Campus

Research Interests

The Tavis Lab’s primary focus is antiviral drug discovery targeting the Hepatitis B Virus ribonuclease H (RNaseH). The lab has developed a suite of biochemical and cell-based assays to evaluate how inhibitors of the RNaseH affect the enzyme and viral replication. Its key resource is a small but chemically diverse set of nuclease inhibitors and their analogs. The lab routinely conducts cytotoxicity assays using MTS (mitochondrial function), neutral red retention (lysosome function), crystal violet retention (DNA accumulation, usually interpreted as cell growth), and LDH release (plasma membrane integrity) to gain a more comprehensive view of how its compound affect the cell. The lab collaborates with medicinal chemists in the United States, France, Greece and China and are actively pushing forward two anti-HBV RNaseH hit-to-lead optimization projects. They work closely with other members of the SLU-IDBI, including Feng Cao, Ph.D.; Maureen Donlin, Ph.D.; Lynda Morrison, Ph.D.; and Getahun Abate, Ph.D. Through these collaborations, the lab has demonstrated that the inhibitors in its library can have high selectivity for one virus or cellular organism over the others, opening a pathway to antimicrobial development targeting nucleases.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either part-time (20 hours/week) or full-time (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Jeffrey Teckman, MD - Pediatrics, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Pediatrics, School of Medicine

SLU Hospital on the South Campus

Research Interests

Jeffrey Teckman, M.D., is chair of the Department of Pediatrics, and a practicing pediatric gastroenterologist. Teckman is a world authority in the metabolic disease alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency, is published and recognized in other liver diseases, and is an experienced consultant to industry and has been involved in FDA applications. His 25 years of academic research have involved molecular biology, cell biology, protein trafficking, and rare diseases focused on liver injury, genetic-metabolic disease, and liver therapeutics. Teckman also has 20 years of experience in continuously funded clinical research, including industry trials phases 1, 2 and 3, multi-center natural history studies and international database trials.

Website: https://www.slu.edu/medicine/medical-education/graduate-programs/biomedical-sciences/biochemistry-molecular-biology/faculty/teckman-jeffery.php

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either a part-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow (20 hours/week) or a full-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Brent Tetri, MD - Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology; Saint Louis University Liver Center

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Internal Medicine - Gastroenterology, School of Medicine

SLU Hospital on the South Campus

Research Interests

Brent Tetri is an international expert on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NASH/NFLD), studying mechanisms of disease formation, progression, and therapeutics. He has developed widely used animal models of NASH, as well as models, methods and assays to study pancreatitis. Tetri is regularly called upon to provide expert consultation to industry on pre-clinical studies, clinical study design, and clinical study endpoint selection in the liver and pancreatic diseases.

Website: https://biochem.slu.edu/ccr/investigators/name/brent-tetri/

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either part-time (20 hours/week) or full-time (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Daniel Warren, PhD - Biology

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Biology, College of Arts and Sciences

Macelwane Hall on the North Campus

Research Interests

Daniel Warren's research program centers on understanding how animals are able to meet the physiological challenges imposed by their environments and by their natural and evolutionary histories. He uses an integrative approach to understand why some animals, particularly pond turtles, are better able to tolerate dramatic changes in oxygen availability, temperature and body-fluid pH. At the cellular level, his studies focus on the heart, which must and does continue to function under conditions (low oxygen and extremely low pH) that would otherwise be fatal to other vertebrates, including mammals. These include studies of cardiac pH regulation and the effects of pH on the cellular processes involved in excitation-contraction coupling, the sequence of events that starts with electrical depolarization of the cell and culminates in mechanical shortening. Warren aims to improve the understanding of how these processes evolved throughout evolution and to better characterize new or existing solutions to physiological problems that many kinds of organisms face. Warren's work may also lead to the identification of targets for therapeutic intervention to treat human diseases associated with inborn errors in metabolism and ischemia, a pathological condition that occurs most notably in the heart and brain when blood flow (and, therefore, oxygen and glucose delivery) is restricted during myocardial infarction and stroke, respectively.

Website: https://thewarrenlab.org/

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either a part-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow (20 hours/week) or a full-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Biomaterials and Nanomaterials

Dana Baum, PhD - Chemistry

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Chemistry, School of Science and Engineering

Monsanto Hall on the North Campus

Research Interests

Dana Baum’s research focuses on the identification of functional nucleic acids (FNAs), such aptamers and DNAzymes, for use in a variety of practical applications. In addition to studies investigating ability of FNAs to participate in redox processes, we are developing FNAs with molecular recognition abilities that can be applied to sensors, biomolecule organization, and biomolecule delivery.

Website: https://www.danabaumlab.com/

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor a part-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow (20 hours/week) for the 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Steven Buckner, PhD - Chemistry

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Chemistry, School of Science and Engineering

Monsanto Hall on the North Campus

Research Interests

Steven Buckner’s group develops and tests novel nanomaterials and nanocomposites for a variety of applications including propulsion, hydrogen generation, imaging, and biomedical applications. Buckner has collaborated with many IDBI members for the development of novel materials for fine vasculature imaging, energetic materials, and materials to enhance tissue and bone formation.

Website: https://www.slu.edu/science-and-engineering/academics/chemistry/faculty/steven-buckner.php

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor a part-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow (20 hours/week) for the 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Natasha Case, PhD - Biomedical Engineering

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Biomedical Engineering, School of Science and Engineering

Biomedical Engineering Building on the North Campus

Research Interests

Research Interests

Silviya Zustiak’s laboratory focuses on hydrogel biomaterials and soft tissue engineering, with emphasis on developing novel biomaterials as cell scaffolds, drug screening platforms and protein delivery devices. 3D Biomaterial-based models are crucial for closing the reproducibility gap between 2D tissue culture and animal models by providing a cell environment that mimics real tissue. 3D systems could have an immediate impact in the development of platforms for toxicology screening, addressing concerns of drug failures in clinical trials due to lack of efficacy or unforeseen side effects. The laboratory also develops injectable and biodegradable hydrogels for sustained localized drug and protein delivery. This research is highly multidisciplinary, merging engineering, materials science and biology.

Website: https://www.zustiaklab.com/

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor a part-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow (10, 20, or 30 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026. Prefer rising sophomores or juniors who are majoring in Biomedical Engineering.

Autoimmunity, Immunology and Inflammation

Rajeev Aurora, PhD - Molecular Microbiology and Immunology

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine

Doisy Research Center on the South Campus

Research Interests

Rajeev Aurora, Ph.D., studies mechanisms that lead to chronic inflammation in the context of osteoimmunology, osteoarthritis, and bone degeneration. His lab uses mouse models and human studies, employing computational and laboratory tools to understand the genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors that lead from acute inflammation to chronic activation of the immune system. The Aurora laboratory has developed a treatment that promotes the crosstalk between the immune and skeletal systems to restore homeostasis. It has been recognized that cytokines produced by proinflammatory T-cells leads to activation of osteoclasts, cells that resorb bone. Persistent exposure to the cytokines leads to erosion of the bone in several diseases including postmenopausal osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis and periodontitis. The laboratory discovered that osteoclasts, in addition to their bone resorbing activity also are antigen presenting cells. He holds multiple patents on treatments for bone degeneration diseases.

Website: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=quaNYyAAAAAJ&hl=en

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor a full-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Ángel Baldán, PhD - Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine

Doisy Research Center on the South Campus

Research Interests

The Ángel Baldán laboratory is interested in sterol homeostasis and in the molecular mechanisms involved in the conversion of macrophages into foam cells. This latter process is particularly relevant in several human pathologies, including atherosclerosis and different pulmonary lipidosis syndromes.

Website: https://biochem.slu.edu/people/baldan/

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either part-time (20 hours/week) or full-time (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Yasar Caliskan, MD - Abdominal Transplant Center, Nephrology, Internal Medicine

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Internal Medicine - Nephrology School of Medicine

Abdominal Transplant Center on the South Campus

Research Interests

Doisy Research Center on the South Campus

Research Interests

Research Interests

Immunotherapy relies on tumor-specific T cells to target and eradicate cancer cells, and this potential has motivated immunologists and oncologists for many decades. Despite tremendous recent success, translating immunotherapy into a reliable treatment option for most cancer patients is still not a reality. One of the major challenges to successful immunotherapy is the induction of T cell tolerance within patients. Tolerance is multifaceted, involving both the death of tumor-reactive T cells and the induction of anergy, which renders any surviving T cells inert. Research in the Teague lab aims to identify and therapeutically target the molecular mechanisms that regulate T cell tolerance as a means to boost anti-tumor immunity, and ultimately to inform translational efforts to provide enhanced immunotherapy for patients with cancer.

Website: https://www.slu.edu/medicine/medical-education/graduate-programs/biomedical-sciences/molecular-microbiology-immunology/faculty/ryan-teague.php

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either part-time (20 hours/week) or full-time (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Willing to mentor either a part-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow (20 hours/week) or a full-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Melissa Berrien-Elliott, PhD - Molecular Microbiology and Immunology

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine

Doisy Research Center on the South Campus

Research Interests

The Berrien-Elliott laboratory uses preclinical and translational approaches to understand how natural killer (NK) cells are impacted by cancer immunotherapies and how the tumor microenvironment contributes to immune evasion. The goal of this research is to develop these mechanistic insights into novel treatments for patients. Recent work has identified enhanced NK cell functionality after brief cytokine activation. These cytokine-induced memory-like (ML) NK cells are being tested in the clinic and are safe. Berrien-Elliott is developing approaches combining these ML NK cells with various tumor-targeting strategies, such as chimeric-antigen receptors and tumor-targeting antibodies in order to treat a wider variety of tumors, including solid tumors. The lab focuses on understanding how ML NK cell therapies can impact the endogenous immune system and the cross-talk between NK cells and the tumor microenvironment.

Berrien-Elliott is a co-founder of WUGEN INC, an allogeneic cellular therapy start-up with multiple cell products currently in clinic testing.

Website: https://www.slu.edu/medicine/medical-education/graduate-programs/biomedical-sciences/molecular-microbiology-immunology/faculty/berrien-elliot.php

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either a part-time (20 hours/week) or a full-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Javier Carrero, PhD - Molecular Microbiology and Immunology

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine

Doisy Research Center on the South Campus

Research Interests

Javier Carrero’s interest is to understand how inflammation triggered by infection or autoimmunity impacts the development of cancer. Multiple cancers have been causally linked to chronic infectious diseases and/or autoimmune syndromes. By evaluating two models of stomach inflammation: Helicobacter pylori and autoimmune gastritis, the Carrero Laboratory seeks to identify mechanisms of gastric cancer induction that may lead to better diagnostics and therapeutics.

Website: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qLcTeZgAAAAJ&hl=en

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either part-time (20 hours/week) or full-time (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Alexei Demchenko, PhD - Chemistry

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Chemistry, School of Science and Engineering

Monsanto Hall on the North Campus

Research Interests

The Demchenko laboratory, Glycoworld, has trained more than 150 researchers and has developed many innovative tools for the synthesis and application of carbohydrates (glycans or glycoconjugates) in five major areas:

New synthetic reagents and building blocks;
Reactions for stereocontrolled glycosylation;
Expeditious strategies and automated technologies for oligosaccharide synthesis;
Biomedical studies on the development of glycopharmaceuticals; and
Integration of glycans and nanomaterials in carbohydrate nanotechnology.

Some of these methods have been applied to the synthesis of tumor-associated glycosphingolipids to study their roles in metastasis of cancers and in pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases; glycoconjugates of important bacterial pathogens Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus for vaccine development; glycopeptides as LPS antagonists for treating septicemia and for the development of Alzheimer's disease therapeutics; human milk oligosaccharides to study their functions, and carbohydrate-based imaging reagents, enzyme inhibitors, and personalized vaccine adjuvants.

Website: https://glyco-world.com/

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either a part-time (20 hours/week) or a full-time (40 hours/week) IDBI-SPUR Fellow for the 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Stephen Ferris, PhD - Molecular Microbiology and Immunology

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine

Doisy Research Center on the South Campus

Research Interests

The Ferris lab researches the basic mechanisms that drive immune responses, specifically focusing on ways to inhibit autoimmunity and augment cancer immune responses. They use multiple models of genetic manipulation to ask fundamental immunological questions during autoimmune and cancer immune processes.

The Vindigni laboratory focuses on the mechanisms of DNA replication and repair, and on the possible strategies to target these mechanisms for cancer treatment. Aberrant DNA replication is one of the leading causes of mutations and chromosome rearrangements associated with several cancer related pathologies. At the same time, agents that stall or damage DNA replication forks are widely used for chemotherapy, in the attempt to selectively target highly proliferating cancer cells. Their work provides a new rationale to design novel molecularly-guided treatments targeting the pathways of replication stress response to cancer chemotherapeutics.

Website: https://biochem.slu.edu/people/vindigni/

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either part-time (20 hours/week) or full-time (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacology

Christopher Arnatt, PhD - Chemistry

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Chemistry, School of Science and Engineering

Monsanto Hall on the North Campus

Research Interests

The core theme of research in the Arnatt Lab revolves around utilizing organic chemistry to decipher cellular processes and disease states. Specifically, they are developing novel small molecule chemical probes and fluorescent probes to study biological systems. Much of their current research is focused on deciphering the protein-ligand interactions of the G Protein-Coupled Estrogen Receptor (GPER, GPR30). Very little is known about how this non-traditional estrogen receptor interacts with estrogen and modulates hormonal signaling inside of cells. The goal of their research is to design ligands that bind to GPER, identify selective agonists and antagonists, characterize their interactions with the receptor, analyze those interactions to develop ligands, which can modulate receptor function in cells, and determine their therapeutic potential. Their laboratory performs both the medicinal chemistry and pharmacology research for this project and has developed the first-ever high-throughput assays for this receptor. Through collaborations with biologists, pharmacologists, and geneticists at SLU and the Albert Einstein School of Medicine, they have begun to reveal GPER plays a role in neurological development and gallstone formation.

Website: https://www.arnattlab.com/

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either a part-time (20 hours/week) or a full-time (40 hours/week) IDBI-SPUR Fellow for the 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Alexei Demchenko, PhD - Chemistry

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Chemistry, School of Science and Engineering

Monsanto Hall on the North Campus

Research Interests

The Demchenko laboratory, Glycoworld, has trained more than 150 researchers and has developed many innovative tools for the synthesis and application of carbohydrates (glycans or glycoconjugates) in five major areas:

New synthetic reagents and building blocks;
Reactions for stereocontrolled glycosylation;
Expeditious strategies and automated technologies for oligosaccharide synthesis;
Biomedical studies on the development of glycopharmaceuticals; and
Integration of glycans and nanomaterials in carbohydrate nanotechnology.

Research Interests

Research in the Znosko laboratory focuses on the thermodynamics and structural features of RNA motifs. While sequences of many important RNAs have been determined, little is known about structure-function relationships of RNA. One reason for this lack of information is that there is little definitive secondary and tertiary structural information about RNA. X-ray crystallography and NMR methods are providing an increasing number of RNA structures, but it is unlikely that these methods will keep pace with the rate at which interesting sequences are being discovered. Thus, there is a need for reliable, rapid methods to predict secondary and tertiary structures of RNA. Being able to predict secondary and tertiary structures of RNA provides a foundation for determining structure-function relationships for RNA and for targeting RNA with therapeutics. A broad, long-term objective of the laboratory is to improve RNA secondary and tertiary structure prediction from sequence.

Website: https://brentznosko.wixsite.com/my-site

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either part-time (10, 20, or 30 hours/week) or full-time (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026. Must already be conducting research in the Znosko lab to apply.

Clinical Studies

Getahun Abate, MD PhD - Infectious Diseases

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine

Doisy Research Center on the South Campus

Research Interests

The development of new drugs against mycobacterial diseases is one of Getahun Abate’s key research interests. His lab works closely with the Hoft lab, and has the following capacities: screening new drugs against bacillus Calmitte Guerin (the attenuated TB vaccine) using a rapid growth inhibition assay, testing drugs on reference strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and M. avium, studying anti-mycobacterial activities against intracellular mycobacteria using human macrophages from healthy donors, testing interactions of new drugs with first-line anti-TB drugs against extracellular and intracellular mycobacteria, studying the effects of new drugs on mycobacterium-specific immunity and testing the cytotoxicity of new drugs on THP-1 (human) and J774.A1 (murine) macrophage cell lines. His lab also has a protocol to test the anti-TB activities of new drugs in murine TB model.

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either a part-time (20 hours/week) or a full-time (40 hours/week) IDBI-SPUR Fellow for the 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Aleksander Babic, MD - Clinical Pathology, Bloodbanking and Transfusion Medicine

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Clinical Pathology, School of Medicine

SLU Hospital on the South Campus

Research Interests

Alex Babic is a trained clinical pathologist within the Saint Louis University and SSM Health hospital system. The research interests of Aleksandar Babic, M.D., are focused on the evaluation of outcomes of umbilical cord blood (UCB) transplantation. Babic was recruited as medical director at St. Louis Cord Blood Bank and subsequently became medical director of the combined Saint Louis University Cellular Therapy Laboratory. He is medical director of the pediatric hematology and oncology apheresis program.

Website: https://icts.wustl.edu/people/aleksandar-babic-md-phd/

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either a part-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow (20 hours/week) or a full-time IDBI-SPUR Fellow (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Yasar Caliskan, MD - Abdominal Transplant Center, Nephrology, Internal Medicine

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Internal Medicine - Nephrology School of Medicine

Abdominal Transplant Center on the South Campus

Research Interests

Yasar Caliskan's research is grounded novel integration and application of collaborative precision medicine program in nephrology and transplantation practice using novel genetic tools and biomarkers. Underlying themes of his research to date have included efforts to advance understanding of:
1) the clinical implementation of genetic tools in Nephrology and Transplantation practice,
2) biomarkers in kidney transplantation and glomerulonephritis
3) health outcomes in kidney transplant recipients and donors.

Caliskan serves as a principal investigator (PI) of Saint Louis University President’s Research Fund awarded project “Molecular Phenotyping of Graft Ischemia-Reperfusion injury and Normothermic Ex Vivo Kidney Perfusion with Single Cell RNA Sequencing”. He is a co-PI for the project “APOL1 Genetic Testing: Exploring Knowledge and Attitudes to Improve Comprehensive Kidney Risk Assessment for Patients and Families”. He is also PI on the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestion and Kidney Disease (NIDDK) Cure Glomerulonephropathy Network (CureGN) Ancillary study “Clinical Significance of Glomerular Immunodeposits in IgA Nephropathy (IgAN) and Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS)”.

Caliskan has over 130 publications, and serves as co-chair, board member, and expert in the international Clinical Genome Resource (ClinGen) consortium.

Website: https://www.getcare.ssmhealth.com/find-a-doctor/doctor-details/yasar-caliskan-md

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either part-time (20 hours/week) or full-time (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Robin Chamberland, PhD - Medical Molecular Microbiology

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Medical Molecular Microbiology, School of Medicine

SLU Hospital on the South Campus

Research Interests

Robin Chamberland, Ph.D., directs the clinical microbiology labs at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital. She assists SLU-DDG investigators who may need access to clinical samples and provides clinical perspective to SLU-DDG investigators. Chamberland studies antimicrobial resistance in S. aureus, a relatively common commensal bacterium that causes opportunistic infections with growing drug resistance. She also studies bacterial toxins and their interaction with the host innate immune system. She focuses on the setting of S. aureus necrotizing pneumonia.

Website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Robin-Chamberland

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either a part-time (20 hours/week) or a full-time (40 hours/week) IDBI-SPUR Fellow for the 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Niraj Chavan, MD - Obstetrics and Gynecology

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine

SLU Hospital on the South Campus

Research Interests

Research Interests

Daniel Hoft is the chief of the SLU Division of Infectious Diseases, Allergy and Immunology, and director of the SLU Center for Vaccine Development. Hoft studies the immune response to multiple intracellular pathogens including Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Trypanosoma cruzi, and works collaboratively to develop and support studies for new drugs against these pathogens.. He has also contributed extensively to the development of multiple vaccines including generating SLU-held IP for a universal flu vaccine, and development of a multi-omics core for studying vaccine responses. Hoft leads the extended stay research unit of the vaccine center, allowing for vaccine-challenge studies against flu and many other pathogens.

Website: https://www.slu.edu/medicine/internal-medicine/infectious-disease/vaccine-development/index.php

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either part-time (20 hours/week) or full-time (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Ajay Jain, MD - Pediatric Gastroenterology, Pediatrics

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Pediatrics, School of Medicine

SLU Hospital on the South Campus

Research Interests

Ajay Jain’s research interests include pediatric liver and gut diseases and nutrition. The Jain lab evaluates strategies targeting liver and gut injury noted in short bowel syndrome (SBS), which results from bowel resection or lack of functional gut. SBS patients require intravenous nutrition through a process called Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN). Despite being a lifesaver, complications in SBS include life-threatening and potentially fatal, intestinal failure associated liver disease (IFALD) as well as gut injury with gut mucosal atrophy and increase gut permeability. The lab studies many aspects of SBS and nutrition, including the role of gut microbiota in TPN-associated injury, and markers of nutritional status and injury. Jain lab is currently evaluating novel molecules in mitigating injury associated with SBS, under a $1.9 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.

Jain is the director of the M.D./Ph.D. program at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, and medical director of the pediatric liver transplant program at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital.

Website: https://www.getcare.ssmhealth.com/find-a-doctor/doctor-details/ajay-k-jain-md

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either part-time (20 hours/week) or full-time (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Brett W Jagger, MD PhD - Infectious Disease, Internal Medicine

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Internal Medicine - Infectious Disease, School of Medicine

SLU Hospital on the South Campus

Research Interests

Brett Jagger, M.D. Ph.D., conducts clinical trials at SLU's Center for Vaccine Development (CVD), including studies initiated through the NIAID Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit (VTEU) network. He is trained in molecular virology as well as pre-clinical vaccine development, and is interested in developing antiviral as well as immunomodulatory therapeutics for arboviral and respiratory viral pathogens, especially encephalitic arboviruses and influenza. His goal is to advance therapeutics for these viral diseases across the continuum of drug development, from in silico screens, through validation in laboratory and animal model systems, and ultimately, human clinical trials. He is also interested in the development of Controlled Human Infection Models (CHIMs) to advance the prevention and treatment of rare and emerging diseases, hosted at SLU's Extended Stay Research Unit.

Website: https://www.getcare.ssmhealth.com/find-a-doctor/doctor-details/brett-william-jagger-md

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either a part-time (20 hours/week) or a full-time (40 hours/week) IDBI-SPUR Fellow for the 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Nermi Parrow, PhD - Pediatrics

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Pediatrics, School of Medicine

Doisy Research Center on the South Campus

Brent Tetri is an international expert on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NASH/NFLD), studying mechanisms of disease formation, progression, and therapeutics. He has developed widely used animal models of NASH, as well as models, methods and assays to study pancreatitis. Tetri is regularly called upon to provide expert consultation to industry on pre-clinical studies, clinical study design, and clinical study endpoint selection in the liver and pancreatic diseases.

Website: https://biochem.slu.edu/ccr/investigators/name/brent-tetri/

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either part-time (20 hours/week) or full-time (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Willing to mentor either part-time (20 hours/week) or full-time (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Duane Grandgenett, PhD - Molecular Microbiology and Immunology; Institute for Molecular Virology

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine

Doisy Research Center on the South Campus

Research Interests

Duane Grandgenett's laboratory has been studying retroviruses since 1970 and discovered the viral integrase (IN) in 1978 in avian retroviruses. IN is responsible for the integration of viral DNA into the host chromosomes. Since the early 1990s, they have focused on HIV-1 IN and helped Merck & Co develop the first major lead inhibitors directed against IN. The first FDA-approved inhibitor, Raltegravir, was in 2007. Two other companies are marketing similar active site inhibitors, one of which (Dolutegravir, GSK) is far superior at the clinical level. Their current efforts are directed towards understanding the mechanisms associated with the assembly of HIV-1 and Rouse Sarcoma Virus (RSV) IN-DNA complexes and their analyses at atomic resolution level. There are no HIV-1 IN-DNA complexes where detailed active site inhibitors can be thoroughly evaluated, except though a very distantly related surrogate prototype foamy virus IN-DNA model. They are now investigating whether the RSV IN-DNA complex can be utilized to study HIV-1 inhibitors at the atomic level. Their recent publications strongly suggest that RSV IN will serve as an excellent surrogate model for HIV-1 IN inhibitors. RSV and HIV-1 IN are similar genetically and structurally and, are equally inhibited in vivo and in vitro by the HIV-1 clinical inhibitors.

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either part-time (20 hours/week) or full-time (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026

Blythe Janowiak, PhD - Biology

Research Lab Affiliation and Location

Biology, College of Arts and Sciences

Macelwane Hall on the North Campus

Research Interests

In addition to my main research interests (see "infectious diseases" section above), I run the IDBI Microbe Screening Core (MSC) out of my research laboratory. Drug-resistant bacteria are increasing at an alarming rate, and we may soon be in a Post-Antibiotic Era where easily curable bacterial diseases become untreatable and deadly. The IDBI established the MSC to advance novel antibiotic discovery to combat the growing threat of of drug-resistant bacteria, particularly the "ESKAPE" pathogens. The MSC is pursuing the following three connected projects to achieve this goal:

Screen Existing Drug Library: Systematically testing thousands of existing compounds, many developed at SLU, against ESKAPE pathogens to identify potential antibiotic candidates
Natural Product ID: Exploring the natural world, screening extracts for novel antibiotic activity
AI-Powered Design & Compound Selection: Utilize artificial intelligence tools with public and SLU proprietary data to model, design, and test entirely new antibiotics from scratch

Website: https://brentznosko.wixsite.com/my-site

IDBI-SPUR Project Description

The specific project that the student will work on will be decided upon together once the student joins the lab.

IDBI-SPUR Mentor Interests

Willing to mentor either part-time (10, 20, or 30 hours/week) or full-time (40 hours/week) for 10-week IDBI-SPUR 2026. Must already be conducting research in the Znosko lab to apply.