Dr. Abigail Vanderheiden joined the WashU Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases as an Instructor in July 2026. She obtained a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in 2016. Her graduate studies focused on investigating innate immune signaling pathways during West Nile Virus and SARS-CoV-2 infection in the lab of Dr. Mehul Suthar at Emory University.
In 2021, she completed her PhD and underwent neuroimmunology training with Dr. Robyn Klein, MD, PhD at Washington University in St. Louis. In 2024, she began her second post-doctoral position with Michael Diamond, MD, PhD studying the neuroimmunology of SARS-CoV-2.
- BS, Biochemistry: University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, Minneapolis MN (2016)
- PhD, Immunology and Molecular Pathogenesis: Emory University, Atlanta GA (2021)
- Rising Stars in Immunology, Norwegian Society for Immunology (2024)
- Travel Award, Gordon Research Conference on Neuroimmune communication in Health and Disease (2023)
- Member, International Society of Neuroimmunology (2022)
- Emory University Immunology Program Scholar of the Year (2021)
- Member, American Association of Immunologists (2020)
- Travel Award, American Association of Immunologists Annual Conference (2020)
- Travel Award, American Society of Virologists Annual Conference (2019)
- Member, American Society of Virologists (2018)
- Vanderheiden A, Diamond MS. Animal Models of Non-Respiratory, Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19. Viruses. 2025 Jan 14;17(1):98. doi: 10.3390/v17010098. PMID: 39861887; PMCID: PMC11768974.
- Vanderheiden A, Hill JD, Jiang X, Deppen B, Bamunuarachchi G, Soudani N, Joshi A, Cain MD, Boon ACM, Klein RS. Vaccination reduces central nervous system IL-1β and memory deficits after COVID-19 in mice. Nat Immunol. 2024 Jul;25(7):1158-1171. doi: 10.1038/s41590-024-01868-z. Epub 2024 Jun 20. PMID: 38902519; PMCID: PMC13148132.
- von Beck T, Navarrete K, Arce NA, Gao M, Dale GA, Davis-Gardner ME, Floyd K, Mena Hernandez L, Mullick N, Vanderheiden A, Skountzou I, Kuchipudi SV, Saravanan R, Li R, Skolnick J, Suthar MS, Jacob J. A wild boar cathelicidin peptide derivative inhibits severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 and its drifted variants. Sci Rep. 2023 Sep 5;13(1):14650. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-41850-7. PMID: 37670110; PMCID: PMC10480232.
- Vanderheiden A, Klein RS. Neuroinflammation and COVID-19. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2022 Oct;76:102608. doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2022.102608. Epub 2022 Jun 29. PMID: 35863101; PMCID: PMC9239981.
- Vanderheiden A, Thomas J, Soung AL, Davis-Gardner ME, Floyd K, Jin F, Cowan DA, Pellegrini K, Shi PY, Grakoui A, Klein RS, Bosinger SE, Kohlmeier JE, Menachery VD, Suthar MS. CCR2 Signaling Restricts SARS-CoV-2 Infection. mBio. 2021 Dec 21;12(6):e0274921. doi: 10.1128/mBio.02749-21. Epub 2021 Nov 9. Erratum in: mBio. 2022 Jun 28;13(3):e0025922. doi: 10.1128/mbio.00259-22. PMID: 34749524; PMCID: PMC8576528.
- Vanderheiden A, Edara VV, Floyd K, Kauffman RC, Mantus G, Anderson E, Rouphael N, Edupuganti S, Shi PY, Menachery VD, Wrammert J, Suthar MS. Development of a Rapid Focus Reduction Neutralization Test Assay for Measuring SARS-CoV-2 Neutralizing Antibodies. Curr Protoc Immunol. 2020 Dec;131(1):e116. doi: 10.1002/cpim.116. PMID: 33215858; PMCID: PMC7864545.