Dr. Shailesh K. Shahi (Faculty Associate) received an American Association of Immunology (AAI) Early Career Faculty Travel Grant to attend the upcoming annual AAI meeting in Washington D.C. In addition, Stephanie Peterson received an AAI Trainee Abstract Award and Ti-Ara Turner received an AAI Trainee Poster Award to attend the same meeting. Stephanie and Ti-Ara are graduate students in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Immunology. All three are working in the laboratory of Dr. Ashutosh Mangalam and will present the following abstracts:
Dr. Shahi: Obesity Modulated Gut Microbiota Exacerbate Disease Severity in a HLA-Class II Transgenic Mouse Model of Multiple Sclerosis
Stephanie Peterson: Gut Microbiome-derived Isoflavone Metabolites May Ameliorate Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis (EAE) Through Estrogen Receptor Signaling in CD8 T-cells
Ti-Ara Turner: Investigating the Requirement of IL-17A and IFNγ in EAE disease development using HLA-DR3.IL-17A-/-.IFNγ-/- transgenic mice
In addition to her AAI award, Stephanie won a University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine Trainee Scholar Award for publication of a first author paper entitled: Effect of a Fructose-Rich Diet on Gut Microbiota and Immunomodulation: Potential Factors for Multiple Sclerosis. The paper was published in the March 1, 2023 issue of ImmunoHorizons. Along with Stephanie, authors were Soham Ali, Rachel Schode and Ashutosh Mangalam. The award includes $500 Stephanie will apply toward the upcoming AAI meeting. The entire paper can be viewed at:
https://journals.aai.org/immunohorizons/article/7/3/213/263540/Effect-of-a-Fructose-Rich-Diet-on-Gut-Microbiota