Student scientists earn top honors at Infectious Diseases and Host Defense Research Symposium

From left, Kevin Macaluso, Ph.D.; Nam Suwanbongkot; Killian Brewer; Allyson Shea, Ph.D.; Meagan Taylor; and Shovon Lal Sarkar.

Nam Suwanbongkot and Christopher

Davies, Ph.D.

Nam Suwanbongkot, a Ph.D. candidate in the Basic Medical Sciences Graduate Program at the Whiddon College of Medicine, received the Outstanding Young Scientist Award at the 2025 Infectious Diseases and Host Defense (IDHD) Research Symposium held in August at the University of South Alabama.   

The award honors a graduate student who demonstrates academic excellence, leadership, and service to the discipline.  

Basic medical sciences Ph.D. candidate Killian Brewer was also recognized, earning the Best Presentation Award for his research on lung pathology in lab models.  

The symposium featured nine trainee research presentations that examined biological and immunological aspects of disease. Topics ranged from immune system responses to tick-borne infections to mechanisms of cytokine release in antibody therapies for cancer.  

The symposium is designed to give students valuable conference-style presentation experience while fostering collaboration and feedback from outside perspectives.  

Student presentations included:  

• 

  Kevin Macaluso, Ph.D., and Killian Brewer

  Olu Adesunloro: “Importance of manganese uptake in uropathogenic Escherichia coli CFT073 during urinary tract infection”  
• Killian Brewer: “Neutrophil hyperresponsiveness contributes to lung pathology in STAT3V463Δ mice” 
• Manley Hicks: “Optimizing macrophage phagocytosis in monoclonal antibody therapies”
• Hoa Tran: “Pseudomonas aeruginosa Type III secretion system effector ExoU activates caspase-1, thereby triggering programmed cell death in lung endothelial cells”  
• Sarah Macon-Foley: “Tick co-feeding transmission of tick-borne flaviviruses: Developing a working model system”  
• Brianna Mitchell: “Mechanisms of cytokine release by monoclonal antibody therapies”  
• Meagan Taylor: “Using primary human dermal fibroblasts as an in vitro model of chikungunya virus infection at the vector-virus-host interface”  
• Shovon Lal Sarkar: “Characterization of Amblyomma maculatum saliva microRNAs and their role in Rickettsia transmission”  
• Nam Suwanbongkot: “Cutaneous response to rickettsial infection via a single infected tick feeding event”  

Keynote speaker Kathryn Patras, Ph.D., of the Baylor College of Medicine, delivered a lecture titled “The path to uncovering an immune conversation that predicts preterm birth,” sharing insights from her scientific research and career path.  

Students including Suwanbongkot, Brewer, Shovon Lal Sarkar and Meagan Taylor, served on the 2025 symposium planning committee. The event was chaired and moderated by Allyson Shea, Ph.D., an assistant professor of microbiology and immunology.