POST-DOCS
Elizabeth Burgener, MD -2016 Liz is an MD and pediatric pulmonology fellow who is interested in pseudomonas and Cystic Fibrosis. Liz is studying how Pf phage contribute to the disease burden in CF. She uses qPCR to correlate sputum phage counts with clinical outcomes in CF. Liz’s research is supported by a Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Vertex Award & a Parker B Francis Fellowship.
Kevin Chen, PhD – 2019 Kevin received his PhD at Texas A&M University Health Science Center, where he studied combinational antimicrobial therapy against drug resistant bacteria, particularly P. aeruginosa, in cystic fibrosis patients. During his PhD, Kevin became interested in phage therapy against P. aeruginosa. Kevin works on how Pf phages contribute to antibiotic resistance in P. aeruginosa.
Kevin Minyoung Kim, MD, PhD -2022 Kevin completed in his PhD at Princeton University under the mentorship of Bonnie Bassler and Howard Stone. He studied bacterial surface colonization and quorum sensing. He then obtained MD degree at Yonsei Medical School, South Korea. He is now interested in phage therapy and how phage impact on human immune systems.
Jen Sequoia, MD, PhD – 2020 Jen is a pediatric resident at Stanford who is interested in how bacteriophage impact human pregnancy. She is co-mentored by Virginia Winn. Prior to starting residency, Jen completed her MD and PhD at the University of Chicago where she studied the epigenetic regulation of early lymphocyte development.
Nina Pennetzdorfer, PhD – 2020 Nina completed her PhD in Molecular Microbiology at Graz University. She studied regulated proteolysis events in Vibrio cholerae and the impact on membrane composition. She is interested in how Pf phage impact host-pathogen mechanisms and molecular interactions between phage and Pseudomonas as a bacterial host.
Arya Khosravi, MD, PhD – 2020 Arya is a Clinical Infectious Diseases Fellow studying immunology and bacteriophages in the lab. He is particularly interested in how filamentous phages contribute to bacterial fitness and metabolism. He completed his residency at UCLA and attended Medical School at USC Keck School of Medicine.
Katie Czepiel, MD – 2022 Katie is a pediatric gastroenterology fellow who is interested in studying liver disease and, more specifically, primary sclerosing cholangitis and the role of hyaluronan in disease progression. Katie is co-mentored by Dr. Natalie Torok. Her research is supported by the Maternal Child Health Research Institute and the Transplant and Tissue Engineering Endowed Fund.
Maryam Hajfathalian, PhD – 2021 Maryam is a visiting scholar from the University of Pennsylvania, Radiology. We are looking forward to applying her knowledge of nanoparticles, therapeutics, and imaging to treating Pseudomonas biofilms and wound infections.
SENIOR STAFF RESEARCHERS
Nadine Nagy, PhD – 2014 Nadine finished her postdoctoral research at Benaroya Research Institute and then moved to join the Bollyky lab. Her research is focused on the role of hyaluronan in innate immunity and fibrosis. She is helping to develop the drug 4-MU for clinical trials.
LAB MANAGER
Aviv Hargil – 2019 Aviv graduated from University of Chicago. He started out working as a vivarium technician in lab. He became a technician and then the director of our phage production pipeline (our phage foundry). In 2022 he was promoted to lab manager. He is interested in bacteria, bacteriophages and ecology.
GRADUATE / MEDICAL STUDENTS
Tejas Dharmaraj – 2019 Tejas is a first year student in the MD-PhD program. Before coming to Stanford, he studied nuclear structural proteins with Katherine Wilson at John Hopkins. Tejas is interested in the intracellular functions and biophysical properties of filamentous bacteriophages.
Julie Pourtois – 2020. is a PhD candidate in the Biology department. She is co-advised by Giulio De Leo at the Hopkins Marine Station and she studies phage-bacteria ecological interactions in human and marine diseases. She is interested in developing mathematical models to test hypotheses and make predictions in complex systems.
Hunter Antonio Martinez – 2018 Hunter is a PhD candidate in the Immunology program. He hopes to gain insight on the role of CD44, a promiscuous transmembrane protein involved in cellular adhesion. The inputs CD44 relays to a T cell at various stages of an immunological campaign have ramifications for both immunometabolism as well as potential therapeutic interest.
Arne Echterhof 2023, is a visiting MD student from Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster. He is studying phage pharmaco-kinetics in the human body and in animal models of phage therapy.
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Naomi Lynn Haddock – 2018 Naomi Haddock is a graduate student in the Immunology Program at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Naomi is interested in using both experimental and computational techniques in infectious disease immunology research. Her work focuses on the circulating and pulmonary phageome in Cystic Fibrosis.
Fannie Dupuy, 2023 is a visiting MD/PhD student from Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris France. She is studying the immune response to bacteriophage and is interested in phage therapy as a treatment for antimicrobial resistant infections.
UNDERGRADS
Tony Chang – 2021 Tony is majoring in Biology and is specifically on the Microbes and Immunity track. He is interested in learning about wound healing and the immune response to wound infections.
Maya Somers – 2021 Maya is majoring in Human Biology and will be helping Dr. Burgener with her projects using qPCR to study Pf phage in Cystic Fibrosis.
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Paul Bollyky, MD, D.Phil. Paul is an Associate Professor at Stanford University. He received his D. Phil at Oxford, his MD at Harvard, and his fellowship training in infectious diseases at the University of Washington. Paul is passionate about immunology, translational research, and medical education. When he’s not in the lab you’ll find him rowing on the bay.
The Bollyky Lab 