Jon McCullers, MD
Member, St. Jude Faculty
jon.mccullers@stjude.org

Jon is a native of the Hampton Roads area of Virginia and attended the University of Virginia, graduating in 1989. While majoring in pre-med studies, his interest in virology was sparked by an emeritus professor, Dr. Rolf Benzinger. He rounded out his collegiate experience playing blues piano and specializing in the saber as Captain of the UVa fencing team. His medical studies took him on a tour of the South, where medical school and his pediatrics residency at the University of Alabama–Birmingham brought him under the tutelage of Dr. Richard Whitley. In 1996, a pediatric infectious diseases fellowship at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital allowed study of influenza viruses under Dr. Robert Webster, and he has lived in Memphis ever since. Jon joined the infectious diseases faculty at St. Jude in 2000 and has since built an NIH funded laboratory which studies co-infections, viral pathogenesis, and novel approaches to influenza vaccination. He is currently an Associate Member in the Department of Infectious Diseases.

Amy R. Iverson
Lab Manager
amy.iverson@stjude.org

Amy is originally from Mississippi and received her Bachelor of Science degree from Delta State University. She joined the laboratory in 2002 and has managed our operations since 2004. Although Amy is equally facile in both viral and bacterial systems, most of her research efforts are in the area of bacterial pathogenesis. Amy studies the contribution of Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus virulence factors to synergism with influenza viruses. In addition, she is examining the role of specific immune cells in mediating clearance of bacteria from the respiratory tract and how viral infection modulates their function.

Irina Alymova, PhD
Scientific Manager
irina.alymova@stjude.org

Irina is a virologist trained at the prestigious D.I. Ivanovsky Institute of Virology in Moscow. She has more than 15 years experience working with negative strand viruses, particularly influenza and parainfluenza viruses. Her current research includes studies on the molecular basis of paramyxovirus binding, and the role of the influenza virus protein PB1-F2 in inflammation and cell death.

Nopporn Apiwattanakul, MD
Postdoctoral fellow
nopporn.apiwattanakul@stjude.org

Nopporn received his MD and Pediatrics training in Bangkok, Thailand and joined the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program at St. Jude in the summer of 2008 as a postdoctoral fellow. He is exploring the impact of chronic worm infections on bacterial pneumonia using Taenia crassiceps and Heligmosomoides polygyrus models.

Nick Van De Velde, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
nicholas.vandeVelde@stjude.org

Nick is from Melbourne, Australia, and received his PhD in 2008 from the MacFarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research working on Fcgamma RII. He is exploring the effect of the influenza A virus PB1-F2 protein on signaling through pattern recognition receptors. In this context he is broadly interested in inflammatory pathways triggered by specific viral virulence factors that may alter immune recognition and responses to bacterial pathogens.

Jenni Weeks, PhD
Postdoctoral fellow
jenni.weeks@stjude.org

Jenni arrived at St. Jude in the summer of 2009, after receiving her Ph.D. at Texas A&M and completing a special fellowship at the University of Texas. She is interested in many aspects of bacterial pathogenesis, and is currently exploring treatment of secondary bacterial pneumonia following influenza as well as the contribution of bacterial cytotoxins to influenza virus induced inflammatory responses and secondary bacterial pneumonia.

Amali Samarasinghe, PhD
Postdoctoral fellow
amali.samarasinghe@stjude.org

Amali is from Sri Lanka and received her Ph.D. at North Dakota State University. During her Graduate training, she developed the first natural laboratory model of asthma. She is now pioneering the study of the effects of chronic asthma on influenza pathogenesis, as well as studying regulation of small immuno-regulatory peptides by influenza viruses.

Hazem Ghoneim
Graduate Student
hazem.ghoneim@stjude.org

Hazem is a Graduate Student at the University of Tennessee working towards his PhD in the McCullers laboratory. He is studying the ontogeny and trafficking of macrophages and neutrophils in the lung during viral and secondary bacterial infections.

Lee-Ann van de Velde
Senior Research Technologist
lee-ann.vandevelde@stjude.org

Lee-Ann graduated with honors from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia with a Bachelor of Biomedical Science in 2006. She has worked in a variety of settings investigating cellular immune responses to viral infections, as well as aspects of autoimmunity. Her current role in the laboratory is to provide advanced immunologic support for clinical trials of influenza vaccines and influenza virus immunity.

Amanda Anderson-Green
Research Technologist
amanda.anderson-green@stjude.org

Amanda is a pre-med student getting laboratory experience prior to beginning her studies in Medical School. She is involved in projects examining the role of PB1-F2 in generating inflammation during influenza virus infection, and provides laboratory support for a clinical study of pneumonia in children.