Mario Pena-Hernandez

Mario did his undergraduate studies, understanding how multiple RNA viruses infect and cause disease under the mentorship of Laura Trejo-Ávila, Ana Rivas-Estilla, Stephen P. Goff, Manuel Llano, and Brett Lindenbach. He completed his Ph.D. dissertation under the mentorship of Dr. Akiko Iwasaki and Dr. Craig Wilen, elucidating molecular barriers that coronaviruses need to acquire pandemic potential to better predict and prevent pandemics. He is now a Postdoctoral Associate working on decoding and reprogramming immune responses in the human respiratory tract against respiratory and airborne viral pathogens under the mentorship of John S. Tsang.