Recent Faculty Publications

Our research has been published in a variety of national and international peer-reviewed journals.

Tchalla EYI, Betadpur A, Khalil AY, Lopez E, Bhalla M, Chang M, Wohlfert EA, Bou Ghanem EN. (2026) Neutrophils induce effective antibody responses to the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine by inhibiting regulatory T cells. Journal of leukocyte biology (Aug)
Battaglia MC, Bhalla M, Marzullo B, Betadpur A, Lenhard AP, Mohamed RH, Kalem MC, Heinzinger LR, Leus PA, Labarron S, Garrett-Sinha LA, Mecsas J, Blumental-Perry A, Bou Ghanem EN. (2026) Host Aging Induces a Senescent-Like Phenotype in Neutrophils and Altered Transcriptional Responses to Streptococcus pneumoniae. Aging cell (Mar), 25(3): e70435.
Dey-Rao R, Melendy T. (2026) HaCaT Keratinocytes: A Differentiation-Competent Platform for Episomal Replication of HPV Type 11. Viruses (Feb), 18(2).
Simmons SR, Rivera A, Bou Ghanem EN. (2026) Basal activation of ERK1/2 blunts the antimicrobial activity of neutrophils from old hosts against antibody-opsonized Streptococcus pneumoniae. Journal of leukocyte biology (Jan)
Mohamed RH, Battaglia MC, Bou Ghanem EN. (2026) Extracellular adenosine released by mesenchymal stromal cells from young hosts boosts the antimicrobial activity of neutrophils from aged hosts against Streptococcus pneumoniae. Immunotherapy advances (Jan), 6(1): ltag007.
Chak V, Bybel M, Harne S, Kay JG, Wohlfert E, Balu-Iyer SV. (2025) Phosphatidylserine exposure on tolerogenic nanoparticle correlate with oral tolerance. Scientific reports (Dec).
Fletcher JR, Hansen LA, Hoyser JR, Hanna AE, Martinez R, Freeman CD, Thorns NT, Penningroth MR, Villarreal AR, Vogt GA, Tyler MA, Hines KM, Hunter RC. (2025) Commensal-derived short-chain fatty acids disrupt lipid membrane homeostasis in Staphylococcus aureus. mBio (Nov)e0139225.
Alruwaili MM, Guo Y, Zonneville J, Melendy T, Straubinger RM, Foster BA, Rajan P, Withers H, Chatley S, Iyer R, Fountzilas C, Bakin AV. (2025) A Sequential Triple-Drug Strategy for Selective Targeting of p53-Mutant Cancers. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology (Nov).
Arif SJ, Hoffman KM, Flynn JM, Wiggen TD, Lucas SK, Villarreal AR, Gilbertsen AJ, Dunitz JM, Hunter RC. (2025) Host- and microbial-mediated mucin degradation differentially shape Pseudomonas aeruginosa physiology and gene expression. PLoS pathogens (Oct), 21(10): e1013568.
Huang YJ, Hunter RC. (2025) Community ecology: the framework for next steps in microbiome research in chronic airway disease. The European respiratory journal (Oct).
Tchalla EYI, Betadpur A, Khalil AY, Lopez E, Bhalla M, Chang M, Wohlfert EA, Ghanem ENB. (2025) Neutrophils induce effective antibody responses to the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine by inhibiting regulatory T cells. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology (Oct).
Chak V, Ovalle EJ, Bard J, Wohlfert EA, Kay JG, Balu-Iyer S. (2025) Single-cell transcriptional analysis of murine mesenteric lymph nodes following oral lyso-phosphatidylserine nanoparticle administration reveals cellular heterogeneity in tolerance features. Journal of pharmaceutical sciences (Sep), 114(9): 103919.
Bhalla M, Simmons SR, Lenhard A, Betadpur A, Battaglia MC, Bou Ghanem EN. (2025) Damage response signaling by the extracellular adenosine pathway: control of infection outcome during host aging. mSphere (Aug)e0064023.
Lembke HK, Nauta KM, Hunter RC, Carlson EE. (2025) Evaluating the Link between Efflux Pump Expression and Motility Phenotypes in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Treated with Virulence Inhibitors. ACS infectious diseases (Aug), 11(8): 2080-2089.
Recio-Balsells AI, Panozzo-Zénere E, Carlucci R, Chaurasia N, Manhas A, Fioressi MB, Montagna GN, Arrizabalaga G, Khan SI, Tekwani BL, Kumar N, Labadie GR. (2025) Advancing N,N'-disubstituted diamines in antimalarial drug development: Structure-activity relationships and mechanistic studies. European journal of medicinal chemistry (Jul), 291: 117630.
Fletcher JR, Hunter RC. (2025) Cross-feeding interactions between Fusobacterium nucleatum and the glycan forager Segatella oris. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology (Jun).
Moore PJ, Hoffman K, Ahmed S, Fletcher JR, Wiggen TD, Lucas SK, Arif SJ, Gilbertsen AJ, Kent LA, Fiege JK, Langlois RA, O'Grady SM, Hunter RC. (2025) Dual oxic-anoxic co-culture enables direct study of anaerobe-host interactions at the airway epithelial interface. mBio (May), 16(5): e0133824.
Simmons SR, Lenhard AP, Battaglia MC, Bou Ghanem EN. (2025) Adenosine 2B Receptor Signaling Impairs Vaccine-Mediated Protection Against Pneumococcal Infection in Young Hosts by Blunting Neutrophil Killing of Antibody-Opsonized Bacteria. Vaccines (Apr), 13(4) doi:10.3390/vaccines13040414
Krueger A, Horjales S, Yang C, Blakely WJ, Francia ME, Arrizabalaga G. (2025) The essential kinase TgGSK regulates centrosome segregation and endodyogeny in Toxoplasma gondii. mSphere (Apr), 10(4): e0011125.
Roach SN, Phillips W, Pross LM, Sanders AE, Pierson MJ, Hunter RC, Langlois RA. (2025) Virus-induced perturbations in the mouse microbiome are impacted by microbial experience. mSphere (Feb)e0056324.

Research Funding

- Nef-independent SERINC5 regulation. Spyridon Stavrou (Principal Investigator). NIH/NIAID. $3,576,554. 7/1/2026-6/1/2031.
- Polysaccharide utilization and antimicrobial resistance in abundant gut bacteria. Yolanda Huang (Principal Investigator). NIH NIGMS. $2,170,000. 3/1/2026-2/1/2031.
- Impact of polymicrobial interactions and within-host adaptation on CAUTI pathogenesis. Chelsie Armbruster (Principal Investigator). NIDDK. $3,693,751. 7/1/2025-6/1/2030.

See all recent funding>

Core Facilities

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Comparative Medicine-Laboratory Animal Facilities (CM-LAF)
7/23/26
The Comparative Medicine Laboratory Animal Facilities (CM-LAF) is a centralized service organization responsible for the animal care and use program campus-wide.
Histology Core
7/23/26
Performs all procedures related to tissue preservation and histological analysis, including training on cryostat use and other protocols.
shRNA Resource
7/23/26
Supports investigators interested in gene transfer using viral vector technologies.
Proteomics/Mass Spectrometry
7/23/26
Identifies proteins in cell or tissue extracts using several different liquid chromotography/mass spectrometry based approaches.
Next-Generation Sequencing and Expression
7/23/26
Offers high-throughput, next-generation sequencing and gene-expression analysis services, including 3’-expression, miRNA, exon and gene arrays.