Charles Schuler, MD

Assistant Professor

Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine and Mary H. Weiser Food Allergy Center

Ronald J. Koenig, MD, PhD Department of Internal Medicine Early Career Endowment Awardee

Dr. Schuler grew up in West Michigan. He obtained his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Michigan. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Allergy/Immunology at the University of Michigan as well. He is a faculty member of the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, the Mary H. Weiser Food Allergy Center, and the Immunology Graduate Program. Dr. Schuler’s professional efforts center on translational and clinical discovery research in food anaphylaxis pathogenesis and diagnostics. His scientific mentors are Dr. James Baker and Dr. Nicholas Lukacs. He enjoys trout fishing, the outdoors, and spending time with his wife and boys.

Links: Michigan Medicine: Charles Schuler, C.S. Mott Children's Hospital: Charles Schuler,  Google Scholars: Charles Schuler 

Judy Hines, PhD

Research Lab Specialist and Laboratory Manager

Dr. Hines grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles and obtained her Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Harvey Mudd College, where she studied the phase behavior of n-Octyl-β-glucopyranoside in water. She then earned her Master’s and Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Wisconsin—Madison under the supervision of Prof. Judith Burstyn, where she conducted research on the chemical and physical mechanisms of allostery in gas-sensing hemoproteins. She then worked under a limited-time contract for the Molecular Spectroscopy Division at Thermo Fisher Scientific as an applications scientist before moving to Michigan to become a scientist and later a manager in the Antibody & Protein Core Services group at Cayman Chemical. Dr. Hines’s broad experience in protein expression, purification, and characterization provides new experimental avenues to pursue within the team.

Benjamin Woerner, MS

Research Lab Specialist

Benjamin Woerner earned his undergraduate degree from Adrian College and his graduate degree from the University of Michigan – Flint. He conducted breast cancer and COVID-19 research during his training. He works in the laboratory group applying observations from human anaphylaxis to mast cell degranulation models and mouse models of anaphylaxis. Ben's tenacity and ability to overcome technical challenges make him an invaluable asset to our team.

Melanie Donahue, MD

Fellow, Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Dr. Melanie Donahue grew up on Cape Cod, MA. She received her undergraduate degree in Biotechnology with a minor in Mathematics from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She worked at the Broad Institute and then attended medical school at the T.H. Chan School of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts.  She completed a combined residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Michigan and is currently a fellow in Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the University of Michigan. She works in the laboratory group evaluating mechanistic underpinnings of clinically-derived epithelial anaphylaxis processes, and her extensive basic/translational biomedical experience in high-throughput techniques has proven invaluable to expanding the reach and rate of our work.

Allison Wang, BS

PhD Student, Program in Immunology

Allison graduated from Rice University in 2022 with a BS in Biochemistry and Cell Biology. At Rice, she was a part of Dr. Jane Tao's lab, where she focused on the expression of the RdRP and other ORFs of the virus CcFV-1. After graduating, she worked as a research assistant in the lab of Dr. Qingyun (Jim) Liu at UT Health Science Center, where she developed bispecific antibodies to improve the cellular intake and efficacy of current cancer treatments. Allison joined the University of Michigan in 2023 to pursue her PhD in Immunology and joined the lab in Spring 2024.

Joseph Abbo

Undergraduate student

Joe Abbo is from West Bloomfield, MI. He is an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan majoring in neuroscience. He brings consistency and dedication to his work in the laboratory helping to define epithelial changes associated with anaphylaxis.

Evann Oleshansky

Undergraduate student

Evann Oleshansky grew up in Birmingham, MI. She is an undergraduate student in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Michigan. She is passionate about food allergy research and is excited to be working on basic mechanisms of early anaphylaxis signaling. 

Lea Franco-MacKendrick, MS, CCRP

Clinical Research Project Manager

Lea joined the Mary H. Weiser Food Allergy Center (MHWFAC) in 2024 as the CoFAR site Project Manager for the University of Michigan and has worked in clinical research at UM since 2009. Ms. Franco has a B.S. degree in Chemistry and a M.S. from the University of Wisconsin. Prior to joining the MHWFAC, she managed research projects focusing on topics in dentistry, concussion, obstructive sleep apnea, stroke and epilepsy, and is enthusiastic about contributing her expertise as a Certified Clinical Research Coordinator (CCRC). 

Bridgette Kaul, RN, CCRP

Clinical Research Coordinator

Bridgette Kaul obtained her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from Michigan State University. She worked as an emergency room nurse at the University of Michigan before becoming the lead oral food challenge specialty nurse in the University of Michigan Food Allergy Clinic. She then joined the clinical discovery team in our group, where she has served a crucial role piloting various sample and data collection techniques during oral food challenges, interfacing with the clinical food allergy team, and collecting samples and data for ongoing studies. Bridgette's expertise as an oral food challenge nurse plays a central role in the success of our overall team.

George Freigeh, MD

Clinical Assistant Professor, Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Dr. George Freigeh grew up in Sterling Heights, MI. He received his undergraduate degree in Cellular Molecular Biology and in Psychology from the University of Michigan. He went to medical school at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, where he also completed a Master's degree in Bioethics and the Medical Humanities. Dr. Freigeh returned to the University of Michigan for a pediatrics residency. He is currently an Allergy and Clinical Immunology fellow here at the University. He works on multiple TEWL-related clinical projects in Dr. Schuler’s group and brings a breadth of experience to clinical discovery research that greatly enhances our team.

Anjali Sundar, MD

Fellow, Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Dr. Anjali Sundar grew up in Troy, MI. She received her undergraduate degree in Comparative Literature and in Biomolecular Science with a minor in Business at the University of Michigan. She attended medical school at Wayne State University School of Medicine.  She completed her residency in Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University and is currently a fellow in Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the University of Michigan. She is working on a TEWL-related clinical project in Dr. Schuler’s group which involves device comparison and collaboration with the School of Engineering.

Medical Trainees 

Kelly O'Shea, MD

Alexandra Hua, MD

Post-Doctoral and Other Graduate Trainees

Llilian Arzola Martinez, PhD

Students and Staff

Jayme Cannon, MS

Chuoqi Chen, MS

Westley Peng

Daniel O'Shea

Kelsey Chen

Cristin Zettel, MS

Christopher Launius, MBA