People

Ritesh Tandon, PhD (Associate Professor, Virology)

Dr. Tandon obtained his PhD (2005) working in the Department of Infectious Diseases, College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia, Athens, GA. He moved to Johns Hopkins University to pursue herpesvirus maturation studies. Soon after, he received an offer of a fellowship from Dr. Edward Mocarski, who was moving his laboratory to Emory University in Atlanta from Stanford University, California. Working in the laboratory of Dr. Mocarski at Emory University, Dr. Tandon gained significant experience in virology and immunology and made important discoveries related to viral and host protein interactions during CMV maturation. Dr. Tandon has been an independent investigator since 2012 and his laboratory has been very productive, publishing >35 major studies since 2013, and acquiring funding for research projects from the National Institute of Health (NIH), American Heart Association (AHA), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Aeronautics, and Space Administration (NASA) and several other sources. Dr. Tandon is currently the principal investigator on a NASA study looking at cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation in space, and co-investigator on an NIH R01 project investigating immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Dr Tandon chairs the Basic Sciences Committee for American Heart Association-Transformational Project Awards. He is also the director of the graduate program in Microbiology and Immunology at UMMC.

Poonam Sharma (PhD Candidate)

Poonam received a M.D (Doctor of Medicine, 2014) from the Maharashtra University of Health Science in India after her undergraduate medical education (M.B.B.S. 2009) at the same institute. She worked as an Assistant Manager-Medical Advisor at TCS Life Sciences in India before joining UMMC. Poonam is working on establishing cell surface glycosaminoglycans as virus attachment receptors. She has completed the coursework requirements for PhD, defended her candidacy, and has already published several co-author manuscripts (>7).

2021 Oral Presentation Award: Mississippi Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting, Biloxi

2022 Oral Presentation Award: Mississippi Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting, Biloxi

2022 Oral Presentation Invitation, American Society for Virology Annual Meeting, Madison, WI

2022 Mid-South Glycoscience Meeting Travel Award, sponsored by MOBILion Systems, Oxford, MS

Christian Yu (PhD Student)

Christian received a Bachelor of Arts (Chemistry) from Rice University, Texas in 2015 and a Masters in Biomedical Sciences from UMMC in 2019. Christian is working on CMV-induced cell death and virus inhibitors of apoptosis/necroptosis. Christian has completed the coursework requirements for PhD, defended his candidacy, and has already published one co-author manuscript.

Komal Beeton (PhD Student)

Komal completed a five-year BS-MS dual degree program in Biological Science from the Indian Institute of science education and research(IISER), Mohali, India and then worked as a Junior Research Fellow in immunology and immunopathology lab on “Screening and characterization of single domain antibodies (VHH) as neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV2“ at the same institute. She joined the Tandon lab in summer 2022. She is currently working on developing anti-CMV peptides as potential antivirals in collaboration with Bidwell lab.

Lauren Fassero (Researcher III)

Lauren Fassero obtained her undergraduate degree (Classics major) from the University of Mississippi (2011) and an MS in neuropsychology at the University of Edinburgh (2014). She graduated with a Masters in Biomedical Sciences from UMMC in 2019. Lauren helps with laboratory management and conducts experiments related to SARS-CoV-2 and CMV.

Past Members

Bernadette M. DeRussy, MD, PhD

Bernadette graduated with a dual MD-PhD degree from UMMC in 2017. She joined the Tandon lab for the PhD part of her program in 2013. Bernadette is currently a Chief Resident in Pathology at Stanford University (https://med.stanford.edu/gme/housestaff/chief_housestaff.html)

Read more about Bernadette's amazing journey at UMMC:

https://bit.ly/2E7AOSN

Here's a list of publications that Dr. DeRussy co-authored with Dr. Tandon.

https://bit.ly/2RIeSpd

List of awards

2014 American Heart Association predoctoral fellowship

2014 First place, poster presentation, Mississippi Academy of Sciences meeting

2015 Best Poster Presentation, ASM South Central Branch Annual Meeting

2015 Induction into Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society

2016 Robert A. Mahaffey Memorial Award

2017 Marshall of the Graduate School at UMMC commencement

Mohammad H. Hasan, PhD

Hasan joined the Tandon lab in 2014. He successfully defended his PhD dissertation in the summer of 2019. Hasan is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Brown University.

Here's a list of publications that Dr. Hasan co-authored with Dr. Tandon.

https://bit.ly/2PCHM7s

List of awards

2018 Travel award, MeTRC Conference, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN

2018 Best Graduate Student Presentation (4th place), Mississippi Academy of Sciences meeting

2019 Best Graduate Student Presentation (3rd place), Mississippi Academy of Sciences meeting

2019 Student manuscript competition (2nd place), Mississippi Academy of Sciences meeting

Dipanwita Mitra, PhD

Dipanwita joined the Tandon lab in 2017. She successfully defended her dissertation in the spring of 2022. Dipa is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Laurie Krug at NCI/NIH. Dipa published >14 manuscripts during her time in the Tandon lab including two first-author manuscripts (PLoS Pathogens and Viruses).

List of awards

2021 American Society for Virology Abstract Award and Oral presentation invitation

2019 1^st place, Poster competition: SHRP Research Day, University of Mississippi Medical Center

2022 Regions Outstanding Graduate Research Award, UMMC

Jeffery Caliedo (Base Pair Student)

Jeff was a senior at Murrah High School in Jackson, MS. He spent one hour every weekday (2018-2019) in Tandon Lab to learn advance biological research. He is currently pursing his undergraduate studies at Yale University.

Read more about the base pair program: https://bit.ly/34ay0Po