Aaron Burberry

Principal Investigator

Aaron Burberry earned his doctoral degree from the University of Michigan working with Gabriel Nuñez to understand host-microbial interactions in Crohn’s disease and hematopoietic stem cell response to infection. For post-doctoral studies, he trained with Kevin Eggan at Harvard University where became interested in studying how a common inherited mutation causes neural degeneration in Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Frontotemporal dementia (FTD). He and his colleagues discovered that this gene acts in the immune system including macrophages and T cells to restrict neural inflammation and autoimmunity in response to gut bacteria. Aaron received a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence award from the National Institute of Aging and joined the faculty at Case Western Reserve University in 2021 as Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology where he continues to explore genetic and environmental contributions to neural inflammation and degeneration.

Adrian Gomez-Nguyen

Postdoctoral Fellow

Adrian Gomez-Nguyen received his bachelor’s degree in biology at the University of Chicago with a specialization in immunology and endocrinology. Prior to entering medical school, he performed a year of clinical research at The Ohio State University Department of Emergency Medicine. He entered the MSTP program at Case Western Reserve and finished his PhD with Dr. Fabio Cominelli. His doctoral dissertation focused on the microbiome-gut-brain axis in a mouse model of Crohn’s disease like ileitis. He has completed his MD and PhD and is applying to PSTP internal medicine residency programs with the intent to complete a gastroenterology fellowship. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow investigating the role of psychological stress in colorectal cancer.

Blake McCourt

PhD Student

Blake is originally from Philadelphia but received a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently pursuing a PhD from the Department of Pathology here at CWRU in the immunology training program. His general research interest is how microbial commensals interact with the host immune system and how that can impact disease. In the Burberry lab, his project is focused on how specific bacteria in the gut microbiome can influence neural inflammation in models of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Outside of lab he likes to run and go to sporting events.

Katie Lemr

PhD Student

Katie is a Cleveland native who started her PhD program at Case Western Reserve University in July of 2023 in the department of Molecular and Microbiology. Katie completed her bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Akron in 2022. After which, she took a gap year working as an analytical chemist at Synthomer to assist their R&D team with developing new products. Katie joined the Burberry lab in November 2023 with interests in investigating how the human microbiome can play a role in non-gastrointestinal diseases. Outside of lab, Katie enjoying knitting and crocheting and spending time with her cats.

Elizabeth Woidke

Research Associate

Elizabeth graduated with a Bachelor’s in Biology from Anderson University in 2016 and with a Master’s in Molecular Genetics from the University of Cincinnati in 2018. She worked in the Stottmann lab at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center for her graduate work and then as a Research Assistant studying craniofacial and brain development in the context of genetic mutations. She specifically worked with mutation in Tuba1a, Tubb2a, and Tubb2b. After getting married, she moved to Fort Drum, New York and work in the clinical lab at Guthrie Medical Center. In September 2023 she joined the Burberry lab where she currently studies how loss of C9orf72 in T cells impacts ALS disease.

Quinn Anderson

Research Associate

Sara Ramaiah

Research Assistant

Sara received her bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from CWRU in 2024. She joined the Burberry lab in September of 2022 as an undergraduate, and continued as an RA after graduation. Her main research interest is computational biology, with particular interest in omics analysis and biological network analysis. In the Burberry lab, she’s working on a single cell RNA sequencing project investigating the relationship between C9orf72 and IL-17A in a mouse model. Additionally, she manages lab computational infrastructure and maintains lab GitHub repositories.

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Shinjon Chakrabarti

Research Assistant

Shinjon received his bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from Case Western Reserve University in 2024. Shinjon joined the Burberry lab in 2023 as an undergraduate and has transitioned into an RA role. His research interests include neurodegenerative disease, the microbiome, and immune system.

Zachary Schmalz

Undergraduate Student

Candidate for BS in Biochemistry, with minors in Chemistry and Economics. Interested in aspects of disease pathways that can be targeted by therapeutics, in preparation for a career in pharmaceutical development.

Josephine Waliszewski

Undergraduate Student

Originally from Berlin, Germany, Fini is a Biochemistry B.S. candidate at CWRU with a minor in Chemistry on the Infectious Disease track. Her research has focused on investigating the pathway of increased CD80 expression implicated in ALS neuroinflammation. Currently, she is examining the anatomic and genotypic distributions of CD80 expression in C9-ALS patient tissue samples. Her work has prepared her for graduate school where she plans to pursue research in disease pathology or infectious diseases.

Christy Liu

Undergraduate Student

Christy Liu is a second-year undergraduate majoring in Biochemistry with minors in Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, and Economics at CWRU. In the lab, she is currently focused on glycogen extraction and analysis, while also exploring how biochemistry intersects with computer science.

Former Lab Members

Karen Ortega

Marghi Jani

Deepa Chitre

Cerianne Huang

Adina Minkin