Two Immunobiology PhD students, Sasha Tabachnikova, BA, and Lena Wirth, BS, have been awarded the prestigious Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Awards (F31).
Sasha is a sixth-year PhD candidate in the laboratory of Akiko Iwasaki, PhD, Sterling Professor of Immunobiology and Professor of Dermatology and of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases).
Lena is a fourth-year PhD candidate in the laboratory of David Braun, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology), Louis Goodman and Alfred Gilman Yale Scholar.
Sasha's thesis work focuses on studying individuals who were infected with SARS-CoV-2 and did not make a full recovery, but instead developed Long COVID. Such patients frequently report lasting and debilitating symptoms that greatly impede their daily function and quality of life. The project funded by this fellowship explores whether SARS-CoV-2 infection reactivates latent Epstein Barr Virus and whether recent Epstein Barr Virus reactivation in Long COVID patients is associated with unique symptoms and changes in immune responses.
Lena's research investigates the role of tumor-draining lymph nodes in renal cell carcinoma. So far, she has identified stem-like T cells within the lymph nodes that share clonotypes with T cells in the blood and tumor of patients, suggesting a coordinated anti-tumor immune response across tissues. The work proposed in her fellowship aims to define the migration patterns and function of these stem-like T cells.
Congratulations Sasha and Lena!