Seminars offer broader views of immunology
Education is core to our mission, which is why IMMCG regularly offers seminars for those interested in deepening their understanding of immunology.
Organized by IMMCG faculty member Marco Orecchioni, PhD, these external seminars are open to any and all, whether you are part of Augusta University or from the community.
Unless otherwise noted, seminars are held at noon Thursdays in the Knox Foundation Community Room (CN1209) on the first-floor of the Georgia Cancer Center's M. Bert Storey Research Building.
Upcoming Seminars
Dario A. Vignali, PhD
Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Immunology
Frank Dixon Chair in Cancer Immunology
Co-Leader of the Cancer Immunology & Immunotherapy Program
Co-Director of the Cancer Immunology Training Program
Scientific Director of Fondazione Ri.MED
Associate Director for Scientific Strategy, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center
University of Pittsburgh
March 25, 2026
Thursday, March 25, at 12:00 p.m., CN 1209
Title: “LAG-3: The Third Checkpoint Inhibitor & its Synergistic Interactions with PD1"
Past Seminars
2026
“Heart-brain Communication in Cardiovascular Disease”
- Thursday, March 5, 2026
Filip Swirski, PhD
Professor of Medicine (Cardiology)
Professor of Diagnostic, Molecular, and Interventional Radiology
Professor of Immunology and Immunotherapy
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
“New Insights into Platelet G Protein Signaliing and Integrin Affinity Regulation"
- Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026
Wolfgang Bergmeier, PhD
Associate Chair of Education & Training
Director of Graduate Studies
Professor of Biochemistry & Biophysics
Sustainability Committee Faculty Sponsor
Community and Engagement Committee Member, Curriculum and Scholarship
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine
“Tissue and Age Determinants of Human Adaptive Immunity”
- Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026
Donna L. Farber, PhD
George H. Humphreys II Professor of Surgical Sciences
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Director, Human Tissue Immunity and Disease Initiative
Chief, Division of Surgical Sciences
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
“PROTACs, Molecular Glues, and Beyond: Mechanisms and Applications in Disease and Biology”
- Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026
Dongwen Lyu, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy
Medical College of Georgia
Georgia Cancer Center
Augusta University
“Interpretable Machine Learning and Protein Network-Based Approaches for Biological Discovery from Multi-Omnic Datasets”
- Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026
Javad Rahimikollu, PhD
Research Data Scientist
Computational Biology
Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh
“Updates in Clinical Immunology: Bench to Bedside”
- Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2026
Brent Griffin, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Pediatrics: Allergy-Immunology and Rheumatology
Medical College of Georgia
Augusta University
2025
TBA
- Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2025
Markus Sperandio, PhD
Professor
Institute of Cardiovascular Physiology and Pathophysiology
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
“Adjuvants: Harnessing Their Potential Beyond Vaccines”
- Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025
Koji Kobiyama, PhD
Associate Project Scientist, Medicine
University of California, San Diego
TBA
- Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025
Virginia Shapiro, PhD
Leader, David F. and Margaret T. Grohne Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapeutics Research
Program
Associate dean for Faculty Affairs
Assistant chair, Department of Immunology
Mayo Clinic
“Inflammation Memory and Immune Therapeutics for Cardiovascular Disease”
- Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025
Liwu Li, PhD
Fellow, American Heart Association,
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Director, Program in Genetics, Bioinformatics & Computational Biology
Professor of Inflammation Biology and Immunology, Department of Biological Sciences
Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Carilion School of Medicine
Virginia Tech
“Barrier Tissue Immunity Against Pathogenic and Commensal Fungi”
- Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025
Eric Dang, PhD
Tenure-track investigator
Laboratory of Host Immunity and Microbiome
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
“Regulation of Cellular Immunity by Microvascular Endothelial Cells"
- Thursday, June 12, 2025
Ulrich H. von Andrian, PhD
Mallinckrodt Professor of Immunopathology
Program leader of Basic Immunology
Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard Medical School
“Mechanisms of HIV-Associated Endothelial Dysfunction and Hypertension"
- Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Eric J. Belin de Chantemèle, DSc
Leon Henri Charbonnier Endowed Chair
Regents' Professor
Associate Director
Vascular Biology Center
Medical College of Georgia
Augusta University
“Cancer and cardiovascular disease: Defining how the world’s two leading killers interact and how they can be simultaneously targeted”
- Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Nicholas J. Leeper, MD
Professor of Surgery
Chief of Vascular Medicine/Vascular Surgery
Director of Vascular Surgery Research
Stanford University School of Medicine
“Targeting Trem2 on Foam Cells in Atherosclerosis”
- Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Jesse Williams, PhD, FAHA
Assistant Professor, Department of Integrative Biology & Physiology
Center for Immunology
University of Minnesota Medical School
“Monocytes/MacRophages in Atherosclerosis”
- Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Alma Zernecke-Madsen, MD
Professor
Head of the Institute of Experimental Biomedicine II
University Hospital (Wurzburg, Germany)
“Molecular and cellular regulation of inflammation”
- Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Ivan Zanoni, PhD
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Boston Children’s Hospital Chair, Immunology
Director of Basic Research in Immunology
Boston Children’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School
“Translating Mechanisms of T Cell Exhaustion into Durable Tumor Immunotherapy”
- Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Benjamin Youngblood, PhD
Faculty Member
Department of Immunology
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
“Lipids and Vascular Inflamation: From Obvious to Obscure"
- Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025
Katey Rayner, PhD,FAHA
Chief Scientific Officer
VP of Research
Professor
Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, & Immunology
Faculty of Medicine
University of Ottawa Heart Institute
“Effects of Lithium on Calcium Signaling and Immune Landscape in the Kidney"
- Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025
Mykola Mamenko, PhD, FAHA
Assistant Professor
Department of Physiology
Augusta University
"Mapping Neutrophils"
- Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025
Andres Hidalgo, PhD
Professor
Department of Immunobiology
Yale School of Medicine
2024
“Immune Mechanisms as Amplifiers of Salt-Sensitive Hypertension & Kidney Damage”
- Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024
David Mattson, PhD
Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in
Hypertension
Department Chair
Professor
Department of Physiology
Medical College of Georgia
Augusta University
“Expanding Medicinal Chemistry Tools to Drug 'Undruggable' Targets"
- Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024
Matteo Borgini, PhD
Assistant Professor
Deptartment of Chemistry & Biochemistry
College of Science and Mathematics
Augusta University
“Immunology in Context: Mechanisms Supporting Tissue-Resident Immunity"
- Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024
Nicholas Jarjour, PhD
Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology
Center for Immunology
University of Minnesota
“The Lupus Experience: Bridging theGap”
- Friday, Aug. 9, 2024
Jade Nealious
Founder and Executive Director
Crowning Lupus
“It Takes Two to Tango: Crosstalk between Endothelium and Myeloid Cells in Development and Disease"
- Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024
Luisa Iruela-Arispe, PhD
Department Chair
Stephen Walter Ranson Professor
Department of Cell & Developmental Biology
Feinberg School of Medicine
Northwestern University
“Contribution of Diet and Sex to Gut-Immune-Kidney Crosstalk in Hypertension"
- Tuesday, July 30, 2024
Justine Abais-Battad, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Physiology
Medical College of Georgia
Augusta University
“The Role of Macrophages in the Context of Aging and Myocardial Infraction"
- Thursday, June 27, 2024
Partha Dutta, DVM, PhD
Associate Professor of Immunology
Department of Immunology
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
"From Lawful Good to Chaotic Eveil: Exploring Protective and Pathogenic Roles of Germinal Centers"
- Tuesday, May 28, 2024
Phillip P. Domeier, PhD
Staff Scientist
Ziegler Laboratory
Benaroya Research Institute
“Neuroimmune Cardiovascular Interfaces in Atherosclerosis"
- Thursday, May 23, 2024
Sarajo Mohanta, PhD
Independent Cardiovascular Group Leader, Department of Medicine
Institute for Cardiovascular Prevention
Ludwig-Maximilians University
"Geographic Health Disparities and Global Health"
- Tuesday, May 21, 2024
Neil J. MacKinnon, PhD
Provost & Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
Chief Academic Officer
Augusta University
“TLR4 Inflammarafts as a New Therapeutic Target in Vascular and Neuro Inflammation"
- Tuesday, May 14, 2024
Yury Miller, MD, PhD
Professor/Professor in Residence, Department of Medicine
University of California, San Diego
“Bio-Active Lipid Metabolites Modulate Clinical Cancer Immunotherapy Outcomes"
- Thursday, April 23, 2024
Sonia Sharma, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Immunology
Center for Cancer Immunotherapy
La Jolla Institute for Immunology
“T Follicular Helper (TFH) Cells, CD4+ T Cell Responses, and Beyond"
- Thursday, April 18, 2024
Hui Hu, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology
University of Alabama at Birmingham
“Host-Gut Microbiota Crosstalk in Cardiometabolic Disease: Multi-Omnics Data Integration in Human Population Studies"
- Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Qibin Qi, PhD
Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Population Health
Associate Director, Einstein Center for Population Cohorts
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
“Single-Cell Spatial Omics Journey to Signaling and Metabolism of Immunity, Cancer, and Aging"
- Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Ahmet F. Coskun, PhD
Assistant Professor, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering
College of Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University
"Triggering Receptor Expressed on Myeloid Cells 1 (TREM1): A New Target for Cancer Therapy"
- Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Anatolij Horuzsko, MD, PhD
Professor or Medicine
Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Professor of Graduate Studies
Medical College of Georgia
Georgia Cancer Center
"Pro-Inflammatory Gene Expression Changes With Age in Men and Women With and Without Coronary Artery Disease"
- Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024
Amir Khan, PhD
Post Doctoral Fellow
Immunology Center of Georgia
"Regulation of Systemic Inflatmmation Assocaited Organ Dysfunction by the WNT Pathway"
- Thursday, Feb. 13, 2024
TianXiang Hu, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Medical College of Georgia
Georgia Cancer Center
The Graduate School
Augusta University
2023
Indumathi Manoharan, PhD
- Assistant Research
- Scientist, Department of
- Biochemistry and
- Molecular Biology,
- Georgia Cancer Center
December 21
Thursday, December 21 at 12:00 p.m., CN 1209
Title: "REGULATION OF SYSTEMIC INFLAMMATION ASSOCIATED ORGAN DYSFUNCTION BY THE WNT PATHWAY"
Kenneth S. Rosenthal, PhD
- Professor of Immunology,
- Augusta University/University of Georgia
- Medical Partnership
December 5
Tuesday, December 5 at 12:00 p.m., CN 1209
Title: "MANIPULATION OF ANTIGEN SPECIFIC IMMUNITY WITH LEAPS VACCINES FOR ANTI-VIRAL, ANTI-CANCER AND ALSO ANTI-RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS THERAPY"
Anshu Agrawal, PhD
- Professor in Residence
- School of Medicine
- University of California, Irvine
November 30
Thursday, November 30 at 12:00 p.m., CN 1209
Title: "IMMUNE DYSFUNCTION UNDERLYING AGING AND ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE"
Mohammad Oliaeimotlagh, MD, MSC
- Postdoctoral Fellow,
- Immunology Center of
- Georgia
November 9
Thursday, November 9 at 12:00 p.m., CN 1209
Title: "Thresholdr: An Automated Method For Thresholding Cite-SEQ-Based Antibody Expression Date For Immune Cell Type Identification"
Nicholas R.J. Gascoigne, PhD, FRSB
- Professor, Immunology Translational Research
- Programme, Cancer Translational Research
- Programme, and Department of Microbiology
- and Immunology, Yong Loo Lin School of
- Medicine National University of Singapore
October 31
Tuesday, October 31 at 12:00 p.m., CN 1209
Title: “Using Distinct CAR and TCR Signaling Cascades to Enhance Cellular Immunotherapy”
Mitchell Kronenberg, Ph.D.
- Chief Scientific Officer
- Autoimmunity & Inflammation Center
- Infectious Disease & Vaccine Research Center
- La Jolla Institute for Immunology
October 12
Thursday, October 12 at 12:00 p.m., CN 1209
Title: “Subsets of Pathogenic T cells in Ulcerative Colitis”
Jane Buckner, MD
- President, BRI
- Director, Translational Sample Core
- Benaroya Institute, Seattle, WA
October 10
Tuesday, October 10 at 12:00 p.m., CN 1209
Title: “T1D from GWAS to Treg Therapy”
Helen Goodridge, Ph.D.
- Professor
- Biomedical Sciences
- Associate Director of Discovery
- Board of Governors
- Regenerative Medicine Institute
- Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
October 3
Tuesday, October 3 at 12:00 p.m., CN 1209Title: “Monocyte Heterogeneity and Origins”
Ting Zhang, MD/Ph.D.
- Tianjin Medical University
- Peking University
September 28
Thursday, September 28, 2023 at 12:00 p.m.
CN 1209
Title: “Leukemia-induced Macrophage in Stem Cells Leukemia/Lymphoma”
Zhichao Fan, Ph.D.
- Assistant Professor
- Department of Immunology
- UConn Health
September 26
Tuesday, September 26, 2023 at 12:00 p.m.
CN 1209
Title: “Roles of mitofusin-2 in Neutrophil Adhesion and Development”
Mohammad Yeashin Gazi, Ph.D
- Postdoctoral Fellow Georgia Cancer Center
August 31
Thursday, August 31, 2023 at 12:00 p.m.
CN 1209
Title: “The Immunological Basis of the Antitumor Effect of a Novel RAS/b-catenin Dual Inhibitor”
Wei Zhang, PhD
- Assistant Professor
- Vascular Biology Center
August 17
Thursday, August 17, 2023 at 12:00 p.m.
CN 1209
Title: “New regulators of inflammation in the disordered vessel wall”
Gabriel Valentin, Ph.D.
- Postdoctoral Fellow
- Immunology Center of Georgia
August 10
Thursday, August 10, 2023 at 12:00 p.m.
CN 1209
Title: “CXCR3 Expression in Myeloid Cells as a Predictive Biomarker for Immunotherapies.”
Wan-Tien (Austin) Chiang, Ph.D.
- Assistant Project Scientist
- University of California San Diego
July 20
Thursday, July 20, 2023 at 12:00 p.m.
CN 1209
Title: “Systems Immunology: Doubling the Power of Single Cell Data in Unraveling the Complex Immune System”
Sujan Shresta, Ph.D.
- Professor
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research
- La Jolla Institute for Immunology
June 13
Thursday, June 13, 2023 at 12:00 p.m.
CN 1209
Title: "Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Flavivirus-Dendritic Cell Interactions”
Jiliang Zhou, MD, Ph.D.
- Professor
- Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology
- Augusta University
June 8
Thursday, June 8, 2023 at 12:00 p.m.
CN 1209
Title:"Identification of master transcription factors for smooth muscle development and homeostasis”
Yan Wang, Ph.D.
- Postdoctoral Fellow
- Dr. Klaus Ley Lab
- Augusta University
June 1
Thursday, June 1, 2023 at 12:00 p.m.
CN 1209
Title: "FACS based-FRET monitor β2 integrin conformation spreading”
Ada Weinstock, Ph.D.
- Assistant Professor
- Department of Medicine, Section of Genetic Medicine, Biological Sciences Division, University of Chicago
May 23
Tuesday at 12:00 p.m.
Title: "The effects of weight loss and regain on atherosclerosis”
Amir Khan, Ph.D.
- Postdoctoral Fellow
- Dr. Klaus Ley Lab
- Immunology Center of Georgia
March 28
Title: "Single cell RNA sequencing reveals age effects on immune cell proportions and transcriptomes in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD)”
Xuemei Xie, MD, PhD
- Postdoctoral Fellow
- Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital, Department of Pathology
March 23
Title: "Exploring Neutrophil development and heterogeneity in homeostasis and infection through single cell transcriptomics”
Natalia Jaeger, MSc
- Ph.D. Candidate in Immunology
- Department of Pathology & Immunology
- Washington University in Saint Louis, MO
March 21
Title: "Heterogeneity of human small intestine T cells and their abnormal distribution in Crohn’s disease”
Caryn L. Bird, Ph.D.
- Ph.D. Candidate, Dr. Theodore Johnson Lab, Cancer Immunology, Inflammation and Tolerance Program, AU
March 14
Title: "Local complement-mediated signaling in response to a tumor antigen augments anti-tumor
T cell responses”
Arif Yurdagul Jr., Ph.D.
- Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Cardiovascular Center for Diseases and Sciences, LSU Health Shreveport
March 7
Title: "Nutrient Sensing of Apoptotic Cell-Derived Cargo Drives Inflammation Resolution”
Mercy Kihinde-Ige
- Graduate Research Assistant, Dr. Huidong Shi Lab, AU
March 2
Title: "Single-cell RNA-sequencing Analysis of Transcriptional Regulatory Networks and Metabolic Pathways in Genetically Modified Tumor-specific CD4+ T cells”
Ogacheko Okoko
- Graduate Research Assistant, Dr. Gang Zhou’s Lab, AU
February 16
Title: "Novel strategies to enhance the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy – Sensitizing tumors and improving T cell function”
Dr. Shahad Iqneibi
- Postdoctoral Fellow, Immunology Center of Georgia, Dr. Klaus Ley Lab at AU
February 2
Title: "Single cell transcriptomic changes of CD8T cells in male and female patients with coronary artery disease and diabetes"
2022
Dr. Huidong Shi
- Immunology Center of Georgia, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University
December 6
“Single-Cell Transcriptomic Analysis of Retinal Microglia Heterogeneity: from Metabolic Profiles to Lineage Topology”
Dr. David Munn
- Immunology Center of Georgia, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University
November 29
“Tracking T cell reactivation during immunotherapy”
Dr. Yukai He, MD, PhD
- Immunology Center of Georgia, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University
November 22
"The affinity of antigen binding domain on CAR-T’s efficacy: Moderate may be better"
Heping Ma, MD
- Immunology Center of Georgia, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University
November 15
"Introduce an imaging modality new at AU, multiphoton and confocal intravital microscopy"
Dr. Gang Zhou
- Immunology Center of Georgia, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University
October 11
"The identity of the immunosuppressive myeloid cells emerging during chemotherapy-induced myelopoiesis"
Dr. Adil Rasheed
- Immunology Center of Georgia, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University
October 4
"MLKL (Mixed Lineage Kinase Domain-Like Protein): An Immunometabolic Nexus of Cardiovascular Disease"