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Daved H. Fremont, PhD

Daved H. Fremont, PhD

Principal Investigator

Professor, Department of Pathology and Immunology

Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics

Education

  • BS, Chemical Engineering: University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (1986)
  • PhD, Biochemistry: University of California, La Jolla, CA (1993)
  • PostDoc, Molecular Biophysics: Columbia University, New York City, NY (1994-98)
  • PostDoc, Immunology: National Jewish Center, Denver CO (1994-98)

Education/Training Program Affiliations

Research Summary

Investigating mechanisms of host immunity and viral evasion.

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Christopher A. Nelson, PhD

Assistant Professor, Pathology & Immunology

Education

  • BS, Chemical Engineering: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI (1985)
  • PhD, Immunology & Molecular Biology: Washington University, St. Louis, MO (1994)
  • PostDoc, Pathology & Immunology: Washington University, St. Louis, MO (1994-1998)

Awards

  • Spencer T. Olin Award (1994)

Research

Several poxvirus immune evasion proteins make use of a conserved β-sandwich-domain that we propose calling a “PIE scaffold”. PIE domain-containing proteins are abundant among chordopox. We estimate there may be as many as 20 separate PIE families. My current aim is to determine the function of as many PIEs as possible, to understand their role in immune evasion, and by x-ray crystallography understand how they bind so many disparate ligands.

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Yanan Dai, PhD

Postdoctoral researcher

Education

  • BS, Pharmacy: Tianjin University, Tianjin, China (2008)
  • PhD: University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China (2013)

Research interests

  • Structural basis of antibody-mediated protection of influenza virus
  • Structural analysis of natural killer cell receptors and ligands
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Maxwell I. Zimmerman, PhD

Education

  • BS, Chemical Engineering: Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL (2012)
  • MS, Chemical Engineering: Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL (2014)
  • PhD, Computational and Molecular Biophysics: Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO (2019)

Awards

  • NSF-GRFP: Honorable Mention (2014)
  • WUSTL Center for Biological and Systems Engineering Scholar (2016)
  • Monsanto/Bayer Graduate Research Fellowship (2016)
  • Needleman Pharmacology Prize (2019)

Research

Utilizing cryoEM, I am working to structurally characterize the ways that antibodies target alphaviruses. This will enhance our mechanistic understanding of infection and improve therapeutic strategies.

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Roderick A. Stegeman

Research Scientist

Education

  • BS, Chemistry: Quincy University, Quincy, IL (1981)
  • BS, Biology: Quincy University, Quincy, IL (1981)
  • MA, Microbiology: Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL (1983)

Research

I have maintained an in house x-ray source used to collect data, freeze crystals, and teach students the fundamentals of crystallography.  This has been a wonderful addition to my career getting the privilege to come back to the academic environment at this stage in my work life.  It continues to be most stimulating, due to the continued learning (thanks to Dr. Fremont, Dr. Nelson, and the all the students in the Lab), and rewarding, due to the interactions with all the wonderful people at WUSM.

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Brittany K. Smith

PhD Candidate: Computational and Molecular Biophysics program

Education

  • BS: North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC (2011)
Katherine Basore

Katherine Basore

PhD Candidate: Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology program

Education

  • BS, Chemistry: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA (2014)
    • Minor in Music

Awards

  • Student Award from the American Institute of Chemists (2014)
  • Carnegie Mellon Senior Leadership Recognition Award (2014)
  • Outstanding Poster Award at NIH Postbac Poster Day (2015)

Research

How I’d describe my research in one sentence: Structural characterization of neutralizing Alphavirus antibodies and virus-receptor interactions.

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John M. Errico

PhD Candidate: Immunology program

Education

  • BS: University of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA (2015)
Paige D. Hall

Paige D. Hall

PhD Candidate: Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology program

Education

  • BS, Biochemistry: Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX (2017)

Awards

  • Chancellor’s Student Research Scholar (2017)
  • ACS-Dallas/Ft. Worth Outstanding Undergraduate Student (2017)

Research

My work focuses on understanding how accessory proteins from poxviruses and coronaviruses evade the host immune response via biochemical and biophysical techniques, as well as characterizing their structures.

Lucas J. Adams

Lucas J. Adams

PhD Candidate: Immunology program

Education

  • BS, Chemistry & Mathematics: Oklahoma Baptist University, Shawnee, OK (2016)

Awards

  • Fleming Scholarship (Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, 2014)
  • Outstanding Science Graduate (OBU, 2016)
  • Outstanding Mathematics Graduate (OBU, 2016)
  • Outstanding Presenter, Postbac Poster Day (NIH, 2017)

Research

I use structural and biophysical techniques to characterize host-virus interactions, including receptor engagement and antibody binding/evasion, with a current focus on SARS-CoV-2.

Lab Alumni

Haiyan Zhao

Postdoctoral research associate 

Xiaoli Wang

Assistant Professor, Pathology and Immunology

Currently retired

Arthur S. Kim

PhD student in Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis program (completed 2020)

Ian B. Harvey

PhD student in Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology program (completed 2020)

Currently a postdoctoral fellow at New York University

Jabari I. Elliott

PhD student in Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology program (completed 2020)

Currently a senior consultant for EY-Parthenon

Lily Xu

Undergraduate student (received BS in 2020)

Currently a PhD student in the Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University

More coming soon!