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Lab Members
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
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
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.
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
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.
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
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.