Postdocs Profiles

Niti B. Jadeja, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Cancer (MIC)
University of Virginia

Email: nitijadeja@virginia.edu

Google Scholar Profile
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Niti has a doctorate in Biotechnology from CSIR-NEERI & RTMNU, Nagpur, India where she worked extensively with the Central and State Governments and private industries. She specializes in Molecular Biology, Metagenomics, and Systems approaches. More specifically, she is driven by the questions of novel gene functions, gene transmissions, genetic adaptations, evolution, and stress response. Her research aims at understanding the ever-evolving genetic functions in microbes and more recently in host-pathogen interaction. She was awarded a CSIR-Senior Research Fellowship (2015) and was invited by the Academy of Finland (2016) to work at Syke in Helsinki during her doctoral research. She volunteers as a mentor to students who wish to translate their scientific findings into industrial applications. Her work finds application in understanding host-pathogen interactions, immune response, drug discovery, communicable diseases, bioenergy, environmental sustainability, and OneHealth.

Currently, she applies her expertise in Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics at the Agaisse Lab in the MIC department to study the evolution and pathogenesis of Shigella species using in-vivo models, integrated ‘omics, and cell biology techniques. Her work focuses on finding biological markers and identifying immune cells enriched in host-pathogen interactions. She likes to teach and continues to mentor students at the Agaisse lab.

Haley E. Adcox, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Cancer (MIC)
University of Virginia

Email: dmg8ny@virginia.edu

Haley acquired her PhD at Virginia Commonwealth University under Dr. Jason Carlyon primarily investigating two different effector proteins and how they modulate the immune response for the benefit of the obligate intracellular bacterium, Orientia tsutsugamushi, the causative agent of Scrub Typhus.

Due to the lack of currently developed genetic tools for chromosomal manipulation of O. tsutsugamushi and the limited lab options for utilizing in vivo model systems, Haley decided to leave the Rickettsiales world and jump into the more competitive field of Chlamydia trachomatis. Although still a very difficult task, the Chlamydia field is on the leading edge for utilizing and developing genetic tools for obligate bacteria that have undergone reductive evolution.

In the summer of 2023, Haley joined the lab of Dr. Isabelle Derré to study C. trachomatis pathogenesis. While still maintaining an interest in host-pathogen interactions, a lot of her work now heavily focuses on the bacteria and how it regulates conversion from an infectious to a non-infectious but replicating form early in its developmental cycle.

Leandro Fernández-García, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Cancer (MIC)
University of Virginia

Email: bqd4gs@virginia.edu  & leandrofg1990@gmail.com

Publications 

LinkedIn Profile
Leandro is a general Microbiologist with extensive experience in Virology, which includes viral detection from clinical and environmental samples, host response to viral infection, endogenous viral elements (EVEs), and basic virology research like cell-virus interaction, virus evolution, and viral mRNA translation.  He obtained the BSc in Microbiology from the University of Havana, Cuba, and PhD in Microbiology from the University of Chile, Chile. He is interested in studying viral mRNA translation initiation mechanisms and how virus infection subverts the host cell translation. Previously, he described and characterized the Internal Ribosome Entry Site (IRES) of Dengue virus (DENV) RNA as well as the role of the Polypyrimidine tract binding protein (PTB) as a DENV IRES trans-acting factor (ITAF).

At UVA in Dr. Mariano A. Garcia-Blanco’s Laboratory, he continues working on the non-canonical translation mechanism of the Flavivirus´s mRNAs, exploring the role of host RNA-binding proteins (RBP) in viral protein synthesis.

Steven J. Rolland, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Cancer (MIC)
University of Virginia

Email: yhj2jn@virginia.edu ; stevenj.rolland@gmail.com

 Google scholar
ORCID
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Steven is a cellular microbiologist passionate about uncovering the mechanisms used by intracellular bacteria to infect their hosts and cause disease. He discovered his interest in host-pathogen interactions during his MSc at the University of Paris Diderot and Pasteur Institute (Paris, France), where he studied the intracellular bacterium Listeria monocytogenes. He earned his PhD from the University of Poitiers (Poitiers, France), investigating the physiology of the free-living amoeba Acanthamoeba castellanii during encystment and its interaction with the intracellular bacterium Legionella pneumophila.

In October 2020, Steven joined the Agaisse lab at the University of Virginia to study the host factors facilitating the cell-to-cell spread of Shigella flexneri. He believes that a deeper understanding of the mechanisms involved in pathogenesis is essential for combating the alarming rise of multi-drug-resistant strains by targeting host factors to disrupt bacterial pathogenesis.

Songyu Dong, PhD (she/her)
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Cancer (MIC) University of Virginia

Email: wmk3ty@virginia.edu

Publications
LinkedIn Profile
Songyu received her PhD from Ohio State University, where she studied the pathogenic mechanisms of actin-targeting bacterial ADP-ribosylating toxins. She analyzed the behavior of ADP-ribosylating toxins secreted from various pathogens, including Photorhabdus luminescens and Salmonella enterica, under more physiologically relevant conditions in the presence of multiple host regulators. Impressed by how bacterial toxins efficiently manipulate the complex actin cytoskeleton, she joined the Agaisse lab in the MIC Department in December 2024 to investigate the interactions between actin-binding proteins and virulence effectors of Shigella flexneri.

Shekhar Saha, PhD
Senior Research Scientist
Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Cancer (MIC)
University of Virginia

Email: ss7st@virginia.edu

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Dr. Shekhar Saha is a senior research scientist at the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia. He earned his PhD from the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, India, where his research focused on understanding the role of Nonmuscle Myosin II-C2 in neuritogenesis. He demonstrated that Nonmuscle Myosin II-C2 interacts with β-integrin to regulate neurite adhesion to the substratum, ultimately influencing neurite growth.

Following his PhD, Shekhar joined the University of Virginia for postdoctoral training, where he investigated the role of long noncoding RNAs in cancer, with a particular emphasis on prostate cancer and glioblastoma. Currently, his research centers on using CRISPR/Cas9 screening to study glioblastoma in combination with various drugs. He aims to identify novel therapeutic strategies to effectively inhibit glioblastoma initiation and progression.