People

			Elodie Ghedin, PhD Principal Investigator Professor of Biology and Global Public Health Director, Center for Genomics and Systems Biology Dr. Ghedin is a member of the Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, and the College of Global Public Health. She has a broad interest in infectious diseases and in using genomics tools to explore host-pathogen interactions in filarial worms (River Blindness and Lymphatic Filariasis) and in influenza infections, microbial and viral population structures in infected hosts, and the association of lung diseases with the microbial diversity (bacterial, viral, fungal) found in the respiratory tract. She is a MacArthur Fellow (2011), a Kavli Frontier of Science Fellow (2012), and an American Academy of Microbiology Fellow (2017).
			Lauren Lashua Laboratory Manager & FluDyNeMo Project Manager In addition to her principal duties as project manager of the FluDyNeMo Systems Biology program, collaborating between and coordinating with six data-generating sites across the US and Canada, Lauren also pursues her interest in how nutrition influences the gut microbiome.
			Tsui-Wen (Tracy) Chou, MS Research Scientist Tracy is currently focusing on RNA expressions of Influenza and Zika viral infected cells. She is also interested in the influences and mechanisms of defected interfering particles (DIP) to wild-type viruses.
			Stephanie Banakis PhD Student Stephanie’s research is focused on the evolution of the Influenza virus, especially in regards to the NA surface protein. She is also interested in creating models of transmission.
			Alexandra Grote PhD Student, Biology www.alexgrote.com Alexandra uses genomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics to characterize filarial parasites to elucidate the basis of adaptation of macroparasites to their human hosts. She is currently using dual RNA-seq to characterize the endosymbiotic interactions between the filarial parasites and the bacteria Wolbachia. She is also analyzing the newly sequenced genomes of Brugia malayi (a causative agent of lymphatic filariasis) and Onchocerca volvulus (the causative agent of river blindness), focusing on the chromosome evolution in this group of filarial nematodes.
			Kristen Gulino PhD Student, Biology Kristen’s current research focus is on viral interactions in respiratory infections.
			Kate Johnson PhD Student, Biology Kate uses next-generation sequencing to characterize the diversity of influenza viral variants within influenza infections, and how these viral variants impact the population dynamics, transmission, and evolution of influenza virus.
			Joseph Koussa PhD Student, Biology Joe currently works on investigating the host-parasite interface from the immune perspective. The work aims at characterizing the potential immune functions of proteins secreted or excreted by our filarial nematode model Brugia malayi. Joe uses computational and molecular techniques to select, recombinantly express and assay the immune effects of individual proteins on human immune cells. His research also aims at characterizing post-translational modifications, and more precisely glycosylation profiles, in B. malayi to identify stage or sex-specific overrepresented epitopes with immune effects.
			Chang Wang PhD Student, Biology Chang’s current research explores at the single cell level dynamic interactions between the influenza virus and its host. Her focus is on how defective viral genomes contribute to the heterogeneity of the cellular response and how that impacts infection outcome.
			Lingdi Zhang PhD Student
			Nikita Reddy Undergraduate Student, Biology Nikita researches the metabolic relationship between the filarial worm Brugia malayi and its obligate symbiont, Wolbachia. By analyzing the RNA expression patterns of these organisms through development, she seeks to characterize their interdependence.

ALUMNI

	Bin Zhou, PhD Senior Research Scientist In seeking answers to some of the most difficult questions in influenza research, Dr. Zhou has developed techniques for influenza virus genomic sequencing and reverse genetics, now used in labs worldwide. He has also discovered and characterized pathogenic determinants of avian and human influenza viruses; designed and evaluated novel live attenuated influenza vaccines; and rapidly generated viruses and vaccine seeds using synthetic genome technology. Dr. Zhou is now the Team Lead for the Vaccine Preparedness Team as part of the Virology Surveillance and Diagnosis Branch, Influenza Division, of the CDC.
	Tao Ding, PhD Senior Research Scientist Tao’s primary interest in influenza pathogenesis was reflected in his research on microbiome dynamics, bacterial co-infection, and the differential expression of the transcriptome, especially the non-coding RNAs (microRNAs and long-non-coding RNAs) in influenza-infected subjects.
	Tim Song, MS Bioinfomatics Analyst Using next-generation sequencing data, Tim modeled the transmission dynamics of the influenza virus.
	Adam Geber Research Scientist Adam worked primarily on the FluDyNeMo project, helping to generate the transcriptomic, metatranscriptomic, and metagenomic datasets that enable modeling of disease outcomes in influenza infections. He also studied the co-evolution of microbes and their hosts, the relevance of the virome to human health, the cultural histories of infectious disease and epidemiology, and radical approaches to translational medicine.
	Kevin Coppa Undergraduate Kevin is now a data scientist at Northwell Health.
	Gabrielle Gussin Master’s, Biology As a Master’s student, Gabby used genomic approaches to study antibiotic resistance and bacterial co-infection with influenza. Now, at UC Irvine, Gabby is involved in several clinical studies aimed at reducing the emergence and spread of multi-drug resistant organisms in healthcare settings.
	Hana Husic Undergraduate, Biochemistry During her undergraduate career at NYU, Hana researched how viral evolution and host respiratory tract microbiota affect disease severity throughout the course of influenza infection. Hana is now a research technician in NYU’s GenCore.
	Dayoon Kwon MPH, Epidemiology Dayoon studied the host response to Zika infection.
	Guy Mason Master’s, Biology BSc Nottingham University Guy completed his Master’s on production of high yield influenza vaccines via CRISPR-mediated knockouts of cellular antiviral factors. He also worked on identifying key viral pathways in cells.
	Laura Tipton PhD, Computational Biology Carnegie Mellon-University of Pittsburgh Combining methods from ecology, machine learning, molecular biology and statistics, Laura researched the respiratory microbiome to determine the relationships among bacteria, fungi, and the host.
	Alan Twaddle Bioinformatics Analyst While in charge of managing all high-throughput sequencing data generated in the lab, Alan also pursued his passion for metagenomics, specifically viral metagenomes. His goal was to improve de novo assembly to uncover known and novel viruses, and features that could not be identified via traditional methods.
	Sam Ahmad Undergraduate Sam worked on the comparative genomic analysis of myxoma virus (MYXV) strains. He is graduating from NYU in May 2018 and will matriculate at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the August 2018.
	Min Lee Undergraduate The focus of Min’s research was on Human Rhinovirus (HRV) replication. Viruses under examination included HRV14 and HRV16.
	Yixuan Ma Master’s, Biology
	Tzvi Pollock Undergraduate Tzvi worked on developing bioinformatic approaches to analyze the viral content of microbiomes. His other academic interests include host-pathogen interaction, evolutionary relationships between humans and microbes, and mechanisms of virulence. Tzvi started his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania in September 2015.
	Graciela Riera Master’s, Biology 2013-2015 Fulbright Scholar Graciela completed her Master’s in the Ghedin lab, investigating neuraminidase deletions in the emergence of drug-resistant Influenza A viruses.
	Michelle Volk Undergraduate As part of a larger project that looks at how host cell expression affects the severity of infection, Michelle focused her research on influenza evolution, specifically how influenza A and B mutate over a period of infection. Michelle will be attending the University of Maine in the fall of 2018 to pursue a Master’s in Ecology and Environmental Studies. Her research will be focused on the disease ecology of Lyme Disease.
	Nick Vulpescu Undergraduate Nick is currently in NYU’s Master’s program in the Biology department on the Bioinformatics and Systems Biology track.
	Boya Zhao Master’s