People
Anita Koshy earned her M.D. from Duke University and trained clinically prior to her postdoctoral fellowship in molecular parasitology at Stanford University in the lab of John Boothroyd. During her time in the Boothroyd lab, she established an in vivo system that permanently marks and tracking the host cells that have interacted with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Anita started her lab at the University of Arizona in 2012.
Anthony "AJ" Aguilar is a freshman majoring in Molecular and Cellular Biology as well as Microbiology. Given his majors, he is passionate about the molecular mechanisms behind human health conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. In the past, AJ has conducted research regarding transgenic mosquitoes and the malaria parasite. Wanting to explore more about human health from a new lens, AJ joined the lab in Fall 2018. In his free time, AJ loves to enjoy the outdoors, travel, and has worked with the KEYS research internship as a KEYS Crew mentor to high school students. In the future, AJ plans to pursue a career in medical research by obtaining his PhD and/or MD after his undergraduate years.
Hannah graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelors in Science in 2014. She worked as a research technician in Joshua LaBaer's lab as part of a cloning team involved in cancer biomarker research after graduation. Hannah matriculated into the MD/PhD program at the University of Arizona in 2016, joined the Neuroscience program in 2018 and began her research in the Koshy lab in July of 2018. Her research focuses on the molecular influence of Toxoplasma gondii on neural inflammatory pathways.
Josh earned his Bachelor's in Microbiology at the University of Arizona. He joined the Koshy Lab as a graduate student in Molecular and Cellular Biology in 2016. His graduate project involves characterizing and defining the molecular and genetic elements that result in Toxoplasma strain-specific CNS immune responses with a particular interest in two secreted effectors, rhoptry protein 16 (ROP16) and dense granule protein 15 (GRA15).
Kathryn earned her B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UC Davis. After graduating she worked as a technician, first in the lab of Dr. Robert Fairclough at UCD studying the pathogenesis of Myasthenia Gravis, and then in the lab of Dr. Nevan Krogan at UCSF studying the protein interactions between HIV and its host cell. Kathryn earned her Ph. D. at UC Riverside under the guidance of Dr. Emma Wilson studying T cell migration behavior in the T. gondii infected brain. In the Koshy Lab, she continues to study how Toxoplasma changes the brain and how those changes may alter the pathology of Alzheimer's Disease.
Emily graduated from North Carolina State University with a degree in Biochemistry in 2010. After working in an environmental chemistry company in Wilmington, NC, and a subsequent stay in genetics lab of Dr. Ann Stapleton at UNC-Wilmington, Emily applied for graduate school at the University of Arizona. She joined the fun, yet stimulating Koshy lab in 2016. The focus of her research is to study how toxoplasma gondii infection modulates host pathways in Alzheimer's Disease.
Arun received his doctorate from University of Hyderabad, India. He worked on the molecular and immunological aspects of Leishmania donovani infection. He joined the Koshy lab as Postdoctoral research associate and will be working on transcriptional profiling of individual neurons, which have interacted with Type II and Type III Toxoplasma parasites.
