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Lab Members

Team: Our Team
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Amanda Poholek, PhD

Principal Investigator

Dr. Amanda Poholek is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pediatric Rheumatology in the Department of Pediatrics and in the Department of Immunology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (UPSOM). She is a Scholar in the Richard King Mellon Institute for Pediatric Research, and Director of the Health Sciences Sequencing Core at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. She is also the co-host of the podcast "That's Pediatrics" featuring interviews with experts at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Poholek grew up in Massachusetts and  recieved her PhD in cell biology at Yale University under the mentorship of Dr. Joe Craft. Dr. Poholek  performed her postdoctoral studies at the NIH/NIAMS under the mentorship of Dr. John O'Shea. Dr. Poholek started her lab at the University of Pittsburgh in 2015. 

Hobbies: Spending time with family and hiking

First concert you attended: Spin Doctors

Favorite thing to do on a rainy day: Board games with family.
Horror movie that scared you the most: The Grudge
Favorite Comfort Food: Ice Cream
 

Kun He, PhD

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Kun grew up in China and recieved his PhD in Biomedical Engineer from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He joined the Poholek lab in 2018 as a post-doc.
His project is focused on:

1. Understanding how inhaled allergens promote tissue specific function of Blimp-1 in promoting Th2 cells in the lung whereas constraining effector response in other location after antigen priming using TCR transgenic mouse tool, spatial transcriptomics and CRISPR based strategy.
2. Exploring function of Blimp-1 in Th2-driven recall responses in the lung upon re-exposure to allergen.

Outside the lab, Kun spends his time hiking, working on his fitness, working movies and cooking. 

First concert you attended: Ode to Joy

Horror move that scared you the most: The Insidious series by James Wan

Favorite comfort food: Fries with ketchup, thin & crispy pizza and hotpot

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Rhodes Ford

4th year PMI PhD Candidate

Rhodes is grew up in Denver Colorado and recieved her BSc in Microbiology and Immunology at McGill University. She has previous experience as a summer student at the University of Colorado Anshutz Medical Campus under the mentorship of John Cambier. 
She joined the Poholek lab in the spring of 2019. Her project is on the unique epigenetic features of terminally exhausted T cells from the tumor. She is currently interested in the mechanism by which these features arise, specifically exploring the role of the tumor microenvironment.
Outside the lab, you'll find her on outdoor adventures or exploring Pittsburgh's bars, breweries, and live music. Some of her favorite outdoor activities are skiing, climbing and backpacking, but she is always up to try something new. 

First Concert: Jason Mraz.

Favorite thing to do on a rainy day: You'll find me on her couch with a record spinning, a cup of coffee and a book.

Horror movie that scared you the most: I don't watch horror movies. Full Stop. 

Favorite comfort food: Poutine, duh. 

Aaron Yang

2nd Year PMI Graduate Student

Aaron grew up in Andover MA and recieved his B.S. in Biology and Health: Science, Society and Policy at Brandeis University. He worked at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in the lab of Eric T. Wong, at the Belfer Center for Applied Cancer Science at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and at Gritstone Bio prior to becoming a PMI graduate student at Pitt. 

His project is focused on understanding the interaction of metabolism and epigenetic in T cells in the context of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). 

First concert you attended: Yellowcard 10 year anniversary of Ocean Avenue tour

Favorite thing to do on a rainy day: Sleeping in as late as possible

Horror movie that scared you the most: And Then There Were None

Comfort food: A big steaming bowl of Phở

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Noelle Hutchison

Undergraduate Researcher

Noelle is from Charleroi in south-western Pennsylvania. She joined the Poholek lab in June of 2021 but spent a summer doing research with us in 2019. She is a sophomore bursuing her Bachelor's of Science in Biochemistry with a minor in data science and analytics at Chatham University. She is working on a project that explores the function of Blimp-1 in group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s).

Hobbies: Writing poetry/prose fiction/music, hiking, camping, baking, studying and debating philosophy and theology

First concert you attended: Korn and Staind

Favorite thing to do on a rainy day: A rainy hike

Horror movie that scared you the most: Event Horizon

Favorite comfort food: Haluski with kielbasa

Jiaqi "Jack" Lu

Research Technician

Jack is from a small town called Shanghai with only a population of 26 million people. He obtained his BS in biology with a minor in Physics from Illinois College. He joined the Poholek lab in October of 2021 and is currently getting settled in the lab learning as much as he can. He loves to travel, hike and being free to mother nature. He loves being out in the woods during a rainy and stormy day. His favorite comfort food is hotpot.

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Yibo Zheng

Visiting Tsinghua Scholar

Yibo is a visiting scholar from Tsinghua University. He is from Shanghai and joined the lab in spring of 2022. He is an undergraduate student in the 4th year of his M.D. program in an 8 year curriculum.  His project is on understanding Blimp-1 expression and function in type 2 innnate lymphoid cells (ILC2s). In his free times, he enjoys watching anime, learning Japanese (to watch anime) and in learning how to cook!
First concert: Mendelssohn
Favorite thing to do on a rainy day: Watching movies in bed with all the lights off. 
Horror movie that scared you the most: Final Destination 3
Comfort Food: Ramen

Collaborators

Hand Lab

The Hand lab hopes to identify the factors derived from host genetics, the environment (diet, infection etc.) and the microbiota that shape host colonization.
Delgoffe Lab

The Delgoffe lab studies the intersection of metabolism and immunity in cancer.

Ray Lab

The Ray lab studies protective mechanisms in the lung that prevent acute lung injury specifically during bacterial pneumonia, and immunoregulatory mechanisms in the neonatal lung that defend against infections

Das Lab

The Das lab focuses on the development and use of novel systems approaches to analyze high-dimensional immunological datasets, and elucidate molecular mechanisms of immunological disorders.

Team: Text
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