Chelsea Marie Braun, PhD

• Role of PKCα in Cryptosporidiosis (NIAID R01)
• Genotoxicity of Shigella (ID seed grant)

Pub Med

NIH RePORT

• Noor, Z., Hasam, M., Gazi, A., Hossaini, F., Haque, N.M.S, Palit, P., Fahim, S.M., Das, S, Mahfuz, M., Marie, C., Petri, W.A., Haque, R., Ahmed, T*. Identifying the phenotypic distribution and functional responses of peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Scandanavian Journal of Immunology.
• Munday,R., Haque,R., Jan, NJ., Wojcik,G., Marie,C., Duchen,D., Mentzer,A., Nayak,U., Korpe,P., Kirkpatrick,B., Petri,WA Jr., Duggal,P.* Genome-wide association study of Campylobacter-positive diarrhea identifies genes involved in toxin processing and inflammatory response. Mbio, 2022 Apr 14;e0055622. PMID: 35420468.
• McCowin, SE., Petri, WA. Jr, Marie, C*. Protein Kinase C-α is a gatekeeper of Cryptosporidium sporozoite adherence and invasion. Infect Immun. 2022 Jan 31:iai0067921. PMID: 35099276.
• Jan, N., Hays, RA., Oakland, DN., Kumar,P., Ramakrishnan,G., Behm, BW., Petri, WA Jr., Marie, C*. Fecal microbiota transplantation increases colonic IL-25 and dampens tissue inflammation in patients with recurrent Clostridioides difficile. mSphere 2021 Oct 27;6(5):e0066921. PMID: 34704776.
• McCowin, S.E., Moreau, G.B., Haque, R, Noble, J.A., McDevitt, S.L., Donowitz, J.R., Alam, M.M., Kirkpatrick, B.D., Petri, W.A., Marie, C*. HLA class I and II associations with common enteric pathogens in the first year of life. EBioMedicine. Apr 2021. PMID: 33910121

We believe that scientific inquiry is inherently connected to societal and political dynamics. Our group stands against racism, bias, and the exclusionary practices that have permeated academia for too long.  We welcome, support, and advocate for community members from diverse backgrounds, including those from different socioeconomic backgrounds, races, ethnicities, gender identities, sexualities, religions, disabilities, familial obligations, and other personal identities. Our lab strives to foster safe, strong, and healthy relationships and promote an environment and culture of mutual respect, friendship, flexibility, and generosity. We recognize that we all make mistakes, and we will learn from our mistakes and take action to correct ourselves.

Dr. Marie directs an early career mentoring program called iDRIV, which is foundational to supporting the success of brilliant investigators from underrepresented backgrounds. This program seeks to fuel the research journey of early career and aspiring faculty at UVA through education, coaching, mentoring, and sponsorship, designed to support those nationally underrepresented researchers in clinical and translational science. (https://www.ithriv.org/idriv-program).

Enslaved laborers built the University of Virginia on Monacan tribal land. UVA students and faculty were supported by the labor and capital provided by enslaved and free Black people through reconstruction. The legacy of eugenic sciences at UVA, among other devasting impacts, contributed to structural racism in health care and racial bias in physicians and health professionals. Dr. Walter Nathaniel Ridley, UVa’s first Black graduate in 1953, and Dr. Barbara Starks Favazza, the first Black woman to graduate from UVA School of Medicine in 1966, are two examples of beacons of light in the fight against racism and exclusion at UVA.  We acknowledge this history to honor those who preceded us and remind ourselves to keep justice, equality, and freedom at the center of our work.

• The Marie Lab heads to Philadelphia for the first biannual Cryptosporidium meeting in March 2024.
• Chelsea Marie joins the leadership of iDRIV.
• Grant Gian Grasso receives a Rhodes Scholarship to pursue a doctorate investigating human susceptibility to infectious disease at Oxford.
• Zach Lee MS, joins the Marie Lab.
• Rebecca Pierce’s undergraduate research in the Marie lab was published in Scientific Reports. The relationship between intestinal inflammation and dysbiosis has been a long-standing question in Crohn’s disease. Rebecca used a clinical cohort of children at UVA with controlled Crohn’s disease to show that dysbiosis was present after the resolution of inflammation, indicating that other factors may drive persistent dysbiosis in pediatric Crohn’s disease. This work has important implications for therapies targeting the underlying imbalance in small intestinal microbiota. Pierce, R., Jan, NJ., Kumar, P. et al. Persistent dysbiosis of duodenal microbiota in patients with controlled pediatric Crohn’s disease after resolution of inflammation. Sci Rep 14, 12668 (2024)
• The Marie Lab attended the first Biannual Cryptosporidium meeting at UPENN. It published an associated paper, “The First Cryptosporidium Meeting: A Concerted Effort to Fight Cryptosporidiosis,” in Trends in Parasitology (Dr. Marie co-author) about the ground-breaking work presented.

Research Scientist

Contact: gtv7kc@virginia.edu

Ning-Jiun “Ninj” Jan is a research scientist passionate about problem-solving. Originally pre-med, she fell in love with biology research and analysis during her first undergraduate research experience in the Bjorkman Lab and hasn’t looked back since. In the few years she has been with Professor Marie, she has learned to conduct experiments with mice and analyze data from RNASeq, flow cytometry, 16s, qPCR, and immunofluorescence imaging. What she loves most about the Marie Lab are the endless opportunities to learn new techniques and grow as a scientist.

Lab Specialist

Contact: fer7fq@virginia.edu

Hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area in California, Zach got his Bachelor’s in Environmental Sciences at Juniata College in Pennsylvania before completing his Master’s in biology and ecology at the University of Rhode Island. His research there focused on entomology and community ecology; specifically, he studied the effects of auditory predation risk cues on caterpillar growth, development, and survival. After graduation, he worked for the USDA animal plant and health inspection service, working on insect biocontrol agents before moving to Charlottesville and UVA. Despite switching away from entomology as a primary career focus, he is still always open to help identify any weird bug pictures that people may have.

Student

Contact: gjg5ax@virginia.edu

Undergraduate Student

Contact: qtq7we@virginia.edu