2025-2026 Schedule

The Department of Microbial Pathogens and Immunity holds regular seminars with invited speakers from outside the institution, as well as researchers from RUSH University.

2025-2026 academic year seminars schedule

Seminars are held in Cohn Research Building Auditorium Room 160 (1735 W. Harrison St., Chicago, IL 60612), unless noted otherwise.

Date and Time	Speaker	Title/Topic
September 10, 2025 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Bethany Perez White, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Dermatology Director, Epithelial Progenitor and Organoid Core (EPOC) Rush University Medical Center (Host: Lena Al-Harthi, PhD)	"Playing the Organoid: Keys to Understanding Epidermal Biology"
September 17, 2025 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Liang Qiao, MD Professor, Microbiology & Immunology Stritch School of Medicine Loyola University (Host: Xian-Ming Chen, PhD)	"Rational Design of Vaccines for Microbial Challenges"
September 24, 2025 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Alice Telesnitsky, PhD Professor, Microbiology and Immunology University of Michigan Medical School Ann Arbor, MI (Host: João Mamede, PhD)	"Recognition and Routing of HIV-1 RNAs"
October 1, 2025 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Jing Jin, MD, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Medicine Division of Nephrology & Hypertension Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Chicago, IL (Host: Xiu-Ti Hu, MD, PhD)	"Autoimmune Kidney Diseases"
October 8, 2025 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Afam Okoye, PhD Professor, Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute Oregon Health & Science University Beaverton, OR (Host: Jeff Schneider, PhD)	"Towards an HIV Cure: Strategies for post-ART Viral Control"
October 22, 2025 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Jonathan David Geiger, BA, MS, PhD Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor, Biomedical Sciences University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences Grand Forks, ND (Host: Jennillee Wallace, PhD)	"Role of Endolysosome Iron and the Reactive Species Interactome in Neurodegenerative Disease Pathogenesis and Pharmacotherapeutics"
October 29, 2025 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Vineet Joag, PhD Assistant Professor of Pediatrics University of Washington Seattle Children’s Research Institute Center of Immunity and Immunotherapies Seattle, WA (Host: Jeff Schneider, PhD)	"Primate Resident Memory T Cells Activate Humoral and Stromal Immunity"
November 5, 2025 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Rebecca Veenhuis, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Molecular & Comparative Pathobiology Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Baltimore, MD (Host: Jennillee Wallace, PhD)	"Redefining HIV Persistence: The Role of Macrophages as a Latent Reservoir"
November 12, 2025 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Benjamin K. Chen, MD, PhD Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine New York, NY (Host: João Mamede, PhD)	"Genetic Models to Reveal the HIV-1 Latent Reservoir"
December 3, 2025 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Mohamed Abdel-Mohsen, PhD Margaret Gray Morton Associate Professor of Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Chicago, IL (Host: Jeff Schneider, PhD)	"Targeting Glyco-Immune Checkpoints in Cancer and Infection"
December 10, 2025 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Stephanie Shiau, PhD, MPH Associate Professor, Biostatistics and Epidemiology Rutgers School of Public Health Piscataway, NJ (Host: Ryan Ross, PhD)	"Aging with HIV and Comorbidities Across the Lifespan: Clues from the Epigenome"
January 21, 2026 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Fotis Asimakopoulos, MB, BChir, PhD Robert E. and Emily H. King Professor of Cancer Research Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology, Oncology and Cell Therapy Rush University Medical Center Chicago, IL (Host: Edward Barker, PhD)	"Tumor Matrix Remodeling in Cancer Immunotherapy"
January 28, 2026 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Sangram S. Sisodia, PhD Professor of Neurosciences Department of Neurobiology The University of Chicago Chicago, IL (Host: Lena Al-Harthi, PhD)	"Molecular Pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s Disease: Role of the Gut Microbiome"
March 4, 2026 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Kiera Clayton, PhD Assistant Professor, Pathology University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School Worcester, MA (Host: Edward Barker, PhD)	"NK Cells Response to HIV-Infected Macrophages"
March 11, 2026 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Zandrea Ambrose, PhD Professor, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA (Host: João Mamede, PhD)	"TBA"
March 18, 2026 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Suellen D’Arc dos Santos Oliveira, PhD Assistant Professor (RT) Department of Anesthesiology University of Illinois at Chicago Chicago, IL (Host: David Williams, PhD)	"TBA"
March 25, 2026 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Liqing Justin Yu, MD, PhD Professor, School of Medicine University of Maryland Baltimore, MD (Host: Xian-Ming Chen, PhD)	"TBA"
April 1, 2026 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	John Koethe, MD, MSCI Associate Professor of Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases Director, Tennessee Center for AIDS Research Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN (Host: Ryan Ross, PhD)	"Adipose Tissue Dysfunction Due to HIV and ART"
April 8, 2026 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Jeannette Tenthorey, PhD Assistant Professor, Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology University of California, San Francisco San Francisco, CA (Host: Edward Barker, PhD)	"Innate Immune Factors in Virus Infections"
April 15, 2026 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Adam Barb, PhD Department Head and Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology University of Georgia Athens, GA (Host: Jeff Schneider, PhD)	"Fc Receptor Glycosylation and ADCC"
April 29, 2026 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Grace E. Stutzmann, PhD Professor & Discipline Chair of Neuroscience Director, Center for Neurodegenerative Disease and Therapeutics Rosalind Franklin University North Chicago, IL (Host: Xiu-Ti Hu, MD, PhD)	"TBA"
May 6, 2026 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Peter Belenky, PhD Associate Professor, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology Brown University Providence, RI (Host: Edward Barker, PhD)	"TBA"
May 13, 2026 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Hazem Ghoneim, PhD Assistant Professor, Microbial Infection and Immunity The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Columbus, OH (Host: Lena Al-Harthi, PhD)	"TBA"
May 27, 2026 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Huiping Liu, MD, PhD Associate Professor, Pharmacology, Medicine (Hematology and Oncology) Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Chicago, IL (Host: Lena Al-Harthi, PhD)	"TBA"
June 3, 2026 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Mauricio De Aguiar Martins, PhD Associate Professor The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology University of Florida Jupiter, FL (Host: Jeff Schneider, PhD)	"AAV-Vectored Delivery of HIV-1 bNAbs in Early Life"
June 10, 2026 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Eugene Chang, MD Martin Boyer Professor, Department of Medicine University of Chicago Chicago, IL (Host: Jeff Schneider, PhD)	"Microbiota Programming of Gastrointestinal Motility"

Please contact the department at (312) 942-6383 or our seminar coordinator, Edward Barker, PhD, for additional information.