Key Faculty & Specific Research Interests

Megan Tierney Baldridge, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Departments of Medicine and Molecular Microbiology
- Phone: 314-273-1212
- Email: mbaldridge@wustl.edu
Dr. Baldridge studies the complicated interplay among three important factors: commensal microbes, the host immune system, and viral and bacterial pathogens.

Jacco Boon, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine, Molecular Microbiology and Pathology and Immunology
- Phone: 314-286-0857
- Fax: 314-286-2784
- Email: jboon@wustl.edu
Dr. Boon He specializes in basic research on RNA viruses, with a special focus on emerging virus such as influenza virus, Bourbon virus and SARS-CoV-2.

Zhenlu Chong, PhD
Instructor in Medicine
- Phone: 314-362-2847
- Email: zchong@wustl.edu
Dr. Chong specializes in innate immunology and infectious diseases, with a special focus on how innate immunity responds to flavivirus infection. He is also very interested in identifying host factors of flaviviruses including West Nile virus, Dengue virus, Zika virus, etc. by using CRISPR screening.

Pritesh Desai, PhD
Instructor in Medicine
- Phone: 314-362-2847
- Email: desai@wustl.edu
Dr. Desai concentration is immunology and microbiology, and virology.

Michael S. Diamond, MD, PhD
The Herbert S. Gasser Professor, Departments of Medicine, Molecular Microbiology, Pathology & Immunology
- Phone: 314-362-2842
- Fax: 314-362-9230
- Email: diamond@wusm.wustl.edu
Michael Diamond, MD, PhD is the leader of a basic and translational research laboratory studying the interface between viral pathogenesis and host immunity. His laboratory focuses on emerging RNA viruses including flaviviruses, alphaviruses, and coronaviruses.

Javan Kisaka, PhD
Instructor in Medicine
- Phone: 314-362-8838
- Email: javan@wustl.edu
Dr. Kisaka specializes in cell, structural and molecular microbiology and currently works in the Kyei Lab.

Robyn S. Klein, MD, PhD
The Robert E. and Louise F. Dunn Distinguished Professor of Medical Sciences, Departments of Medicine and Pathology and Immunology
- Phone: 314-286-2140
- Fax: 314-362-9230
- Email: rklein@wustl.edu
Dr. Klein is an internationally renowned neuroimmunologist who oversees a basic and translational science research program focused on the pathogenesis of neuroinfectious diseases of the central nervous system (CNS). Studies in the Klein laboratory focus on cellular and molecular mechanisms that orchestrate inflammation and define its impact on CNS function during both viral and autoimmune encephalitides.

George B. Kyei, MBChB, PhD
Associate Professor, Departments of Medicine and Molecular Microbiology
- Phone: 314-454-8354
- Fax: 314-454-5392
- Email: gkyei@wustl.edu
Dr. Kyei specializes in HIV basic and translational research, with a special focus on viral latency and reactivation specifically: (i) characterization of factors that control HIV replication in macrophages, dendritic and resting T cells and (ii) identification of cellular factors and small molecules required for HIV reactivation in latently infected cell and (iii) perspectives of HIV patients on HIV cure.

Daisy W. Leung, PhD
Associate Professor, Departments of Medicine, Pathology and Immunology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics
- Phone: 314-286-0645
- Email: dwleung@wustl.edu
The Leung Lab is focused on developing a mechanistic understanding of host-pathogen interactions that contribute to viral pathogenesis through immune evasion.