Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty and Research Interests

Ben D. Elzey, PhD, Assistant Research Professor

• Research Interests: the role of myeloid-derived suppressor cells in cancer progression; the role of platelets in generating adaptive immune responses; Director of the Biological Evaluation Shared Resource in the Purdue University Center for Cancer Research 

Harm HogenEsch, DVM, PhD, Professor of Immunopathology; Associate Dean for Research at Purdue Veterinary Medicine, Diplomate American College of Veterinary Pathologists

• Research Interests: mucosal immunology and mucosal vaccines; adjuvants; dendritic cells; immunobiology of the skin

Christoph Konradt, PhD, Assistant Professor of Immunology

• Research Interest:  immune responses to infection in the vascular compartment and at the fetal-maternal interface 

Tsang Long Lin, DVM, PhD, Professor of Veterinary Pathology; Head of Avian and Aquatic Section, Senior Veterinary Diagnostic Pathologist, Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory

• Research Interests: diagnostic pathology; molecular pathology and immunohistopathology of infectious, toxic and neoplastic diseases; and avian, swine, and fish, laboratory animal pathology

Suresh K. Mittal, DVM, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Virology in the Department of Comparative Pathobiology, University Faculty Scholar, Member of Purdue Cancer Center, Member of Bindley Bioscience Center

• Research Interests: viral expression vectors; recombinant vaccines; gene therapy; adenovirus; gene expression; role of adenovirus early region 1 and early region 3 in pathogenesis; mucosal immunity; innate immunity; pandemic influenza including bird flu

Sulma Mohammed, DVM, PhD, Professor of Cancer Biology

• Research Interests: breast and cervical cancer biology with a focus on cancer prevention, biomarkers, and global disparities in these diseases

Sanjeev Narayanan, BVSc, PhD, DACVP, DACVM, Department Head of Comparative Pathobiology, Professor of Diagnostic Medicine and Pathobiology

• Research Interests: anaerobic bacteriology; vaccinology; antimicrobial resistance. 

Deepti Pillai, BVSc, MVSc, PhD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Diagnostic Microbiology

• Research Interest: antimicrobial resistance and identifying critical bacterial targets as vaccine candidates

Timothy Ratliff, PhD, Distinguished Professor of the Department of Comparative Pathobiology; The Robert Wallace Miller Director Purdue University Center for Cancer Research 

• Research Interests: immunotherapy of prostate cancer; immunotherapy of bladder cancer;  communication between innate and adaptive immune compartments via platelets; prostate inflammation; bladder inflammation

Rebecca Wilkes, DVM, PhD, DACVM (virology and bacteriology/mycology) Assistant Professor, Molecular Diagnostics, Section Head for Molecular, Virology, and Serology Sections

• Research Interests: infectious diseases of animals and development of new molecular assays for detection of infectious organisms 

Jiang Yang, PhD, Research Assistant Professor

• Research Interests: inflammation in prostate diseases; cholesterol metabolism in prostate cancer

GuangJun Zhang, PhD, John T. and Winifred Hayward Associate Professor of Genetic Research, Genetic Epidemiology and Comparative Medicine

• Research Interests: cancer genetics and genomics, ion channel functions in embryonic development, bioelectricity in embryogenesis and cancers, zebrafish genetic models of human diseases, evolutionary developmental biology