HTPM Students

Mentor: Dr. Alfredo Torres

Alex received a Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of California, Irvine. After graduating he continued to work there as a lab specialist in the Vaccine R&D Center. During his time at UCI he has studied the host immune responses to a recombinant vesicular stomatitis vaccine against Marburgvirus, a subunit vaccine for Coxiella burnetii, and a protein nanoparticle vaccine against influenza. He has also worked on projects studying how different combinations of vaccine adjuvants skew the type of immune response elicited as well as how modulating vaccine release kinetics affects efficacy. His interests lie in vaccinology, immunology, and microbiology.

S. Gabrielle Cody grew up in a far suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, and was first exposed to infectious disease research on a field trip to the CDC in eighth grade.  She graduated with her bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in May of 2020 and promptly moved 4,500 miles to Honolulu during a pandemic for her master's degree.  At the University of Hawaii, she worked initially on flavivirus diagnostics and then transitioned to systematically reviewing the female-specific pathologies of the Schistosoma haematobium parasite. Gabrielle joined the HPTM program in 2022 and is looking forward to establishing herself in a lab.  She is interested in vaccinology and high-containment research.  Outside of school, Gabrielle knits extensively and enjoys her time with her husband and their two cats.

Awards/Scholarships:

2022- David and Janet Niesel Presidential Scholarship Award, UTMB

Whenever she could she would spend all day watching Kdramas, cooking, and dancing.

Mentor: Dr. Irma (Lisa) Cisneros

Camille Ledoux received a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University majoring in Biology & Society with a minor in Infectious Disease Biology. She is a fellow of the Cornell Institute of Host-Microbe Interactions and Disease and worked on a team studying Vibrio cholerae’s zinc-starvation response as it relates to chemotaxis in the Dörr Laboratory as an undergraduate researcher. After graduating from Cornell University, Camille worked as a COVID-19 Contact Tracer and vaccine educator in New York State. She is interested in how we can better improve scientific communication in the context of explaining emerging infectious disease threats to the public.

Mentor: Dr. Jonathan Hommel
Clinical Co-Mentor: Dr. David Houghton

Sierra Miller graduated magna cum laude from West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and minors in Biology and Mathematics. Following graduation, she worked as a lab technician for the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service where she focused on identifying sources of nitrous oxide production from feed yards. At UTMB, Sierra is a Presidential Scholar and member of the Hommel Lab in the Center for Addiction Research. Her research focuses on the underlying neurocircuitry of nutritional balance and binge eating disorder by integrating computational, behavioral, and neuroanatomical approaches. Sierra is involved in the Society for Neuroscience at UTMB and participates in community outreach programs about the effects of drugs and alcohol. She enjoys spending time with her dog and attending activities on campus, at church, and around Galveston.


Awards/Scholarships:

Mentor: Dr. Heather Stevenson-Lerner

Sanjana graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in Cell and Molecular biology with a minor in Sociology. In 2021, she completed her master’s degree in the Medical Sciences from University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth Dallas. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she had the opportunity to work as a contract tracer for Dell Medical School at UT Austin. In her undergraduate years, she has had a multitude of research experiences including the investigation of novel antibiotics produced by Streptomyces rochei bacteria, bioinformatic research on bacteriophages as well as being a research assistant in UT Project SEED which studied social, psychological and educational state of children who translate for their non-English speaking parents. In her free time, she enjoys reading, watching movies, drawing/painting and writing.

Florence graduated from Sam Houston State with a bachelor’s degree in biomedical science in 2021. She has three years of research experience studying antibiotic resistance in  Enterobacteriaceae at SHSU. In the summer of 2021, she was accepted as a PREP scholar here at UTMB, where she studied pathogenic mechanisms of severe scrub typhus via unveiling molecular details of host-Orientia tsutsugamushi infections. Her main interest is in immunology, specifically immune dysregulation in intracellular bacteria. Florence joined UTMB’s HPTM program in the fall of 2022. In her free time, she likes reading Dan Brown books, taking care of her dog Iris, and writing poetry.  

Mentor: Dr. Irma (Lisa) Cisneros

Maura was raised in Tijuana, Mexico, where she attended Medical School at Centro de Estudios Universitarios Xochicalco-CEUX. She did her medical internship and clinical rotations at the Tijuana General Hospital, where she solidified her theoretical knowledge with complete hands-on training. She completed her medical training with a year of social service in Mexicali, B.C; as a Lead Physician, she provided primary medical care to four rural communities with +3,000 patients. During that time, she had the opportunity to witness many medical needs and treatment gaps, so after earning her Medical Degree, she decided to join the research world to diversify her medical knowledge and acquire new skills. She is currently a member of Dr. Cisneros’s lab in the Department of Pathology. Her research will focus on elucidating the relationship between the SARS-Covid2 infection and the alterations in the Kynurenine pathway that results in neurological symptoms in the post-infection period, in previously healthy individuals and patients with previously neurocognitive diseases. She enjoys swimming, paddle boarding, and having movie nights with her family during her free time.

Mentor: Dr. Jere McBride

Awards/Scholarships:

Mentor: Dr. Dustin Green

Mentor: Dr. Shao-Jun Tang

Michael Spurgat is a PhD student who is currently examining the role of exosomes released from astrocytes in chronic pain during HIV infection. Michael worked as a bioinformatics analyst at the University of Houston sequencing core during his final year of undergraduate studies. While there, he assisted research groups by analyzing their genomic data and generating figures to assist them in visualizing their results. Michael then graduated from the University of Houston in 2017 with degrees in both biochemistry and computer science. His future work will leverage both computational and biological methods.

Awards/Scholarships:

2016 – CPRIT Summer Undergraduate Fellowship Grant
2012-2016 – Academic Excellence Scholarship

Awards/Scholarships: