Congratulations to Dr. Penghua Wang on receiving an NIH R01 grant through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases entitled, “The role of unanchored ubiquitin chains in non-canonical inflammasome signaling”. Immunology faculty members Dr. Jianbin Ruan and Dr. Vella will serve as Co-Investigators

Congratulations Dr. Sivapriya Kailasan Vanaja for having a paper from her lab, “Redefining Shiga toxin–induced human cell death as NLRP1- and gasdermin E-mediated pyroptosis” published in the journal PNAS. The paper, first-authored by Dr. Rafael Ricci-Azevedo, a former postdoc in the Vanaja lab, identified the precise mechanism by which Shiga toxin, the leading cause of pediatric hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) worldwide, kills human cells.

Jason Cahoon (P. Wang Lab), Aadrita Hazra (Vanaja Lab), Eileen Theune (K. Wang Lab), and William Theune (K. Wang Lab) were selected to receive the AAI Trainee Abstract Award and were invited to give oral presentations at the Block Symposiums at IMMUNOLOGY2025^TM in Honolulu, HI.

The 50th Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE) annual dinner was held at the University of Connecticut in Storrs on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. Recent inductee Dr. Vijay Rathinam was recognized. In attendance were member Dr. Beiyan Zhou, Dr. Sivapriya Kailasan Vanaja, member Dr. Anthony Vella and member Dr. Bruce Liang.

Congratulations to Dr. Vijay Rathinam on his election to the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE). Members are elected by the current membership on the basis of their accomplishments in science, engineering and/or technology.

Dr. Summit Singhaviranon and Dr. Pramod Srivastava's lab published a paper, entitled Low-avidity T cells drive endogenous tumor immunity in mice and humans in Nature Immunology, which demonstrates the superior anti-tumor activity of T cells with weak binding to cancer cells over T cells with strong binding to cancer cells in both mice and humans. Their paper both provides a fundamental mechanistic rationale for this finding and proposes a viable approach to translate these findings to patient care.  Their work  challenges the existing paradigm that is focused on maximizing T cell binding to cancer cells and has the potential to improve cancer patient outcomes in numerous ways.

Dr. Andrew Harrison is a former graduate student in Dr. Penghua Wang’s lab and this paper entitled, “UBXN9 governs GLUT4-mediated spatial confinement of RIG-I-like receptors and signaling”,  identifies a noncanonical, glucose independent role for GLUT4 in regulating antiviral immunity in skeletal muscle and adipose tissue. Their work further highlights a unique relationship between GLUT4, interferon pathways and human inflammatory myopathies.

We welcome Dr. Bernie Cook as assistant professor in the Department of Immunology. Dr.  Cook provides science editing and vector illustration support to the faculty and staff within the School of Medicine.

The annual Biomedical Science Graduate Student Research Day is an annual celebration of the research accomplishments of the students in the Biomedical Science PhD program at UConn Health. The Department of Immunology celebrates the accomplishments of all students and congratulates these 6 award winners from different laboratories.

• Andreia Cadar: Graduate Student Mentorship Award (Mentor: Dr. Jenna Bartley Ziming Cao: 1st Place Poster Presentation Award (Mentor: Dr. Zhichao Fan)
• Ziming Cao: 1^st Place Poster Presentation Award  (Mentor: Dr. Zhichao Fan)
• Timofey Karginov – Edward G. Henderson Memorial Prize for Outstanding Thesis in Biomedical Science (Mentor: Dr. Anthony Vella)
• William Theune - Lepow Award for Outstanding Biomedical Science PhD Student Entering the 4th Year of Study (Mentor: Dr. Kepeng Wang)
• Vincent Graziano: 1st Place Oral Presentation Award (Mentor: Dr. Vijay Rathinam)
• Kristina Delgado: 3rd Place Poster Presentation Award (Mentors: Dr. Radolf, Dr. Hawley, Dr. Caimano)

William Theune received the 2024 Lepow Award for Outstanding Biomedical PhD Student entering the 4th year of study at the Graduate Student Research Day.  This award, established in 1986 in honor of Dr. Irwin H. Lepow, a well-known faculty member, researcher and founding father of UConn Health, is given to the outstanding fourth-year student in the Biomedical Science Ph.D. program. William studies under the mentorship of Dr. Kepeng Wang.