Dr. Michael Abt – Principal investigator
Michael is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. He joined the UPenn faculty in 2018. His previous postdoctoral research was conducted at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the laborartory of Dr. Eric G. Pamer. Michael received his Ph’D at UPenn in the laboratories of Dr. David Artis and Dr. John Wherry studying Microbiota signaling that modulate antiviral immunity.
Dr. Joshua Denny – Postdoctoral Fellow
Joshua joined the lab in 2019 after receiving his PhD from the University of Louisville in the lab of Dr. Nathan Schmidt where his thesis work focused on how the gut microbiota modulated resistance or susceptibility to severe malaria in mice. His research interests lie in how the gut microbiota and immune system interact in the context of disease, and how this relationship can be modified to prevent disease pathogenesis.
Kevin Mears – Graduate Student
Kevin graduated from the University of Washington with a B.Sc degree in Microbiology. He joined the Abt lab in the Spring of 2021. His research focus is on studying the spatial and transcriptional profile of C. difficile in response to immune stimuli.
Jeff Maslanka – Graduate Student
Jeff graduated from Rider University with a B.Sc in Biology. He joined the lab in the Fall of 2021. His research focus is on immune factors that impair fecal microbiota transplant engraftment.
Ellie Hulit – Research Specialist
Ellie graduated from University of New Hampshire with a B.Sc in Genetics. Her undergraduate research focused on plant genetics, how absence of subunits in PP2A affected Arabidopsis thaliana growth under salt stress conditions. She joined the lab in the June of 2023. Ellie is interested in endogenous C. difficile and its interactions with toxigenic strains.
Zhongze Sun – Graduate Student
Zhongze graduated from the University of Iowa with a B.Sc in Biochemistry. He joined the lab in the Summer of 2023. His research focus is currently on the TeeR assay.
Dr. Subham Mridha – Postdoctoral Fellow
Subham joined the lab in 2023 after receiving his PhD from University of Zurich, Switzerland where his thesis work focused the social traits of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. He investigated the phenotypic heterogeneity of these traits at a single cell level. Thereafter, he also investigated microbial prey-predator interactions using Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus. His research interests involve studying the immune-microbiome interactions focusing on C. difficile with an evolutionary perspective.
Lab Alumni
Emily Cribas – PhD Student (2018-2023)
Current Position: Inclusive Science Communication Program Specialist at the Metcalf Institute
Ying Yang – PhD Student (2022-2023)
Current Position: Post-Doctoral Researcher at Kite Pharma
Zahidul Alam – Postdoctoral Fellow (2019-2023)
Current Position: Assistant Professor at East Carolina University
Nontokozo Mdluli – Research Specialist (2020-2023)
Current Position: PhD student – Drexel University
Jeffrey Maslanka – Research Techinician (2019-2020)
Current Position: PhD student – UPenn Abt Lab!
Rebecca Colon Rios – Summer Undergraduate internship (2019)
Current Position: PhD student – Yale University
Jacob Dubner – Undergraduate Student (2019-2020)
Current Position: Columbia University Medical Student
Ashna Sethi – Undergraduate Student (2019-2020)
Current Position: UPenn Master’s of Public Health
Former Rotation Students
Seble Negatu – Penn IGG
Bruktawit Goshu – Penn IGG
Julia Flores – CAMB, MVP
Montserrat Arreguin – Penn IGG
Emily Aunins – CAMB MVP