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 28, 2026 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Sangram S. Sisodia, PhD Thomas A. Reynolds Sr. Family Professor of Neurobiology Professor of Neurology Professor of Neuroscience Institute Committee on Neurobiology The University of Chicago Chicago, IL (Host: Lena Al-Harthi, PhD)	“Gut-Brain Axis in AD”
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”
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"
May 6, 2026 Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 a.m.	Peter Belenky, PhD Associate Professor, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology Brown University Providence, RI	"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"

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