People

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Ashutosh Arun, Ph.D. is interested in executing basic and clinical research geared towards delineating mechanistic pathways in disease progression, using druggable targets for the development of drug candidates. Dr Arun has experience in the development of novel therapeutic agents against cancer, using biochemical and molecular biology, and expertise in molecular mechanisms of Trypanosoma cruzi induced cardiac pathology. His expertise motivates him with new conceptual and contemporary approaches to elucidate molecular mechanisms of action and the discovery of novel drugs against infectious disease.
In Dr. Mitreva’s lab he is working on a project related to the discovery of novel drug targets and development of novel anthelmintic small molecules against infectious diseases caused by different parasitic helminths.

Suman joined Dr. Mitreva’s lab as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Febuary 2023. Her primary research project focuses on the development of transgenic organisms, understanding the mechanism and interference of different metabolites in host-pathogen interactions. She is also involved in the Identification and characterization of novel drug targets and the development of anti-parasitic drugs against human parasitic nematodes.

Mahdiyeh has pursued multi-disciplinary research in the areas of enzymology, insect transgenesis, plant transient gene expression, and molecular diagnostic assays of vector-borne disease. She has conducted her Postdoctoral research at Cornell University and Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. Her current research focuses on discovering and developing novel therapeutic technologies in human parasitic nematodes.

ShuTing Chen is a rising senior undergraduate student from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. She is currently a participant in the Opportunities in Genomics Research program at Washington University- School of Medicine. She is interested in exploring microbiology and plans to pursue a graduate degree studying microbial pathogenesis and host defense.

Young-Jun’s research focuses on the study of the helminth parasites involved in neglected tropical diseases that cause suffering among some of the world’s poorest communities. He uses comparative and population genomic approaches to make discoveries that improve our understanding of parasite biology and our ability to control these infections.

Jacquelyn is a rising senior undergraduate student at Washington University in St. Louis studying global health. She is interested in pursuing further study in parasitology and neglected tropical diseases after graduating. Her project within the MitrevaLab group investigates the cytotoxicity of anthelminthic candidates to mammalian cells.

The focus of Pawan Kumar’s research is on the molecular and population genetics of parasitic helminths, one of the etiological agents responsible for “Neglected Tropical Diseases” in low-income populations in developing nations. He is attempting to identify genetic markers and anthelmintic resistance mechanisms so that methods can be developed to combat post-treatment recurrence of infection and the establishment and spread of parasites. Additionally, his knowledge of how to analyze genomic and transcriptomic data will aid in the identification and prioritization of variants as well as the development of tools for molecular surveillance.

Giljae joined Dr. Mitreva’s lab as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in March 2024. He is primarily interested in exploring the variations in the human microbiome across different host states and the host-microbe interactions. His current project focuses on interpreting longitudinal metagenome data to understand how early exposure affects host health.

John Martin has been working in the lab of Dr. Makedonka Mitreva for more than 20 years.  John locates & implements (or develops) applications for the group as needed, does data processing and analysis, provides informatics support and oversees the IT needs of the group.

Bruce has worked in Dr. Mitreva’s lab since 2012. His bioinformatics projects focus on analysis and interpretation of high throughput datasets including genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics, of parasitic helminths, humans and mice, as well as human microbiomes.

Sachin’s primary interest is to understand the mechanism and interference of different metabolites of pathogena and their response in the host, most importantly host-pathogen interaction. He is also involved in the discovery of novel drug targets and development of noble antimicrobials/antiparasitic small molecules against different infectious diseases.

Rahul has worked with Dr. Mitreva for more than 7 years and led multiple projects including those that involved comparative parasite genomics, drug discovery, metabolic networks, non-coding RNA discovery etc. He has also been an important part of multiple collaborative projects involving genomic, transcriptomic and chemigenomic analyses.