Rachel Fitzjerrells, a Bioinformatics and Computational Biology PhD student in the Mangalam Lab, won the prestigious Max Smith Oral Presentation Award at the 71st Iowa Section AADOCR on February 13th, 2024.

Stephanie Peterson successfully defended her PhD thesis in early October and completed the Immunology PhD program.

Peter Lehman successfully defended his M.S. thesis this past June and completed the Pathology M.S. program. Peter’s thesis is entitled Effect of Gut Microbiota Modulation During Early-life and Adulthood on Host Immunity. He performed his thesis work in the laboratory of Dr. Ashutosh Mangalam where he examined the effects of gut microbiome disruption on immune function.

Stephanie Peterson, a Ph.D. student performing her thesis work in the laboratory of Dr. Ashutosh Mangalam, was selected as a trainee on the Immunology Pre-doctoral T32 training grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). This funding will support Stephanie’s research exploring the role of high fructose diets in the predisposition and/or exacerbation of multiple sclerosis utilizing animal models.