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Meet Our Team
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Primary Investigator - Jianxun Song, PhD 

Description:

Dr. Jianxun (Jim) Song received his Ph.D. in Immunology from The Third Military Medical University in 1998, China, and did his postdoctoral training with Dr. Michael Croft in the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology at San Diego, CA.  In 2007, Dr. Song was recruited to the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine and went through the tenure process.  In 2017 Dr. Song moved his laboratory to the Texas A&M University Health Science Center and is currently a professor in the Department of Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunology.

 

Awards and Honors:

  • 2022 - 2023 AAI Laboratory Travel Grant (Portland, Washington DC)

  • 2022 AAI Immunology Fellowship (with postdoctoral scholar Dr. Jugal Das) 

  • 2019 AAI Travel Grant to International Congress of Immunology (Beijing, China)

 

Research Support​:

  • NIH/NCI (1R01CA221867)     

  • DoD (LC210361)

  • NIH/NIAID (1R21 AI167793)

  • NIH/NIAMS (1R21AR083057) 

  • NIH/NCI (1R01 CA273002)

  • ARPA-H (P0080)

  • NIH/NCI (1R01CA282254)       

 

Areas of focus:

  • Pioneering T-Cell Immunity and Metabolic Regulation

  • Targeting Immunomodulatory Pathways

  • Innovative Strategies for Cancer Immunotherapy

  • Advancing Immunotherapy for Autoimmune Disorders

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Post-Doctoral Researchers

Post-Doctoral Researcher

Anil Kumar

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Education:

  • PhD, National Centre for Cell Science, Pune, India.

  • Post-Doc, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia.

  • Post-Doc, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX.

 

Research: 

Currently working on elucidating the role of NAC1 deficient T reg cells and CD8 T cells in tumor immunotherapy. My research goal is to study the role of NAC1 in regulation of T cell metabolism and their effect on T cell function in tumor microenvironment (TME).

Post-Doctoral Researcher

Rakesh Kumar

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Education:

  • PhD, Molecular Virology and Immunology, Guwahati, India.

  • Post-Doc, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA.

 

 

 

Research:

An advancing cancer immunotherapy by combining bacterial treatments with adoptive T cell transfer. The work explores bacterial roles in tumor prevention, therapeutic and CAR T cell enhancement, alongside studying bacterial effects on gene expression related to Pyroptosis and PANtopsis.

Post-Doctoral Researcher

Sunilgowda S Nagaraja 

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Education:

  • PhD- SASTRA University, Tamil Nadu, India.

  • Post-Doc, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida.

 

 

 

Research:

My research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms of immunogenic cell death pathways within the lung cancer-induced tumor microenvironment (TME). Additionally, I am investigating epigenetic factors and cell signaling mechanisms involved in TME.

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Christina James Thomas

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PhD Student, Texas A&M University, IMSD T32 Trainee

September 2023 - Present

Education:

  • BSc Biology, University of North Texas at Dallas

Kaylee Delgado

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PhD Student, Texas A&M University, IMSD T32 Trainee

September 2023 - Present

Education:

  • BSc Biology, St.Edward's University

  • Msc Integrated Biomedical Sciences, Rush University Medical Center

Darby J. Ballard

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PhD Student, Texas A&M University

 

January 2020 - Present

Education:

  • BSc Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University

 

Awards:

  • Southernland Leadership Award

  • Texas A&M School of Medicine Meritorious Award

PhD Students

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Academic Collaborators

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Krish V Suman

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Jacob Roy

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Amber Loera

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Ben Borja

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Yashvi Gandhi

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Zachary Manzano

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Harshit Rongala

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Fisher Craft

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Daniel Dowran

PhD Rotation Students

Current Rotational Students 

Former Rotation students

Sarah Johns-Hegerhorst
Nicole Petit

Duminduni Hewa Angappulige
William Leach
Song Lab

Designed by:

Nirmit Kumar Rongala

Prajwal Vandana

Harshit Kumar Rongala

Research Assistants

Kamlesh Sawant

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Masters Student in Biotechnology, Texas A&M University

 

November 2023 - Present

 

Education:

  • Integrated Master in Bioengineering, MIT-Arts, Design & Technology University, Pune, India

Nirmit Rongala

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Research Assistant, Texas A&M University

 

 

June 2024 - Present

 

Education: 

  • Biology B.S, Texas A&M University

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Jugal Das

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Hao Yun Peng

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Liqing Wang

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Yijie Ren

Former lab Members

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