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.

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.

David Koo

MSTP Student

David graduated with a Bachelor’s in Biochemistry from Boston College in 2024. After a gap year working as a surgical assistant, he started the MSTP program at Case Western Reserve University in July of 2025. David joined the Burberry lab during the summer of 2026. He is interested in Immunology and its impact in neurodegenerative diseases.

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

Quinn received his bachelor’s degree in biology from Taylor University in 2021 and graduated with his MS degree in Biology and certificate in Biotechnology from Ball State University in 2023. After becoming married in July, Quinn joined the lab as a Research Associate in August of 2023. He helped to establish a consistent behavioral testing regiment while refining lab protocols such as the Western blot and Golgi-Cox staining. In addition, Quinn has sustained a project that has shown the efficacy of P7C3-A20 in C9orf72 ALS/FTD murine models. Outside of the lab, he enjoys hiking, biking, kayaking, and anything else outdoors.

Jinxiu Pan, MD

Senior Research Associate

Jinxiu received her medical degree from Nantong University in China in 2011 and a master’s degree in Rheumatology from Tongji Medical College in 2014. She came to the United States to pursue biomedical research and worked in Dr. Xiong’s lab at Augusta University (2014–2017) and Case Western Reserve University (2017–2022), studying bone biology and the interactions between bone, muscle, and the central nervous system. From 2022 to 2023, she studied epigenetic regulation of steroid signaling in prostate cancer in Dr. Sharifi’s lab at Cleveland Clinic. From 2023 to 2026, Jinxiu worked in Dr. Skowronski’s lab at Case Western Reserve University, using stop-codon suppression technology to label HIV-1 particles. In June 2026, she joined Dr. Burberry’s lab, where she currently studies how loss of C9orf72 contributes to ALS.

Christy Liu

Undergraduate Student

Christy Liu is a fourth-year undergraduate majoring in Biochemistry with minors in Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, Economics, Chemistry, and Mathematics at CWRU. In the lab, she has worked on image analysis/quantification of CD80 on microglia of human tissue samples while also exploring how biochemistry intersects with computer science. She is currently part of a bioinformatics project involving single-cell RNA sequencing. Christy maintains the lab website!

Alyssa Wang

Undergraduate Student

Alyssa Wang is a second-year undergraduate student double majoring in Cognitive Science and Biology, with a minor in Bioethics. Alyssa is interested in the studying neurodegenerative diseases and how to target the underlying pathways behind disease progression.

Natalie Pillai Juárez

Undergraduate Student

Natalie Pillai Juárez is a second-year undergraduate student at Case Western Reserve University majoring in Biology with a minor in Sports Medicine. In the lab, she is currently focused on tracking calcium signaling in T cells. She is interested in understanding the cellular mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative disease and exploring potential approaches to improve our understanding and treatment of disease progression.

Former Lab Members

Karen Ortega

Marghi Jani

Deepa Chitre

Cerianne Huang

Adina Minkin

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.

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.

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.

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.

LinkedIn

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.