Current and Past Lab Members

Current lab member profiles

Alicia Bostwick: Graduate Student (Cell Type: Al-B-cia)

What is one sentence that describes your work?: I'm determining the role of proline metabolism in CD8 T cell survival and function within the tumor microenvironment.( I use CRISPR to explore the role of proline metabolism)

If you could be any immune cell what would you be?: I would be an activated B cell because I like sharing with others, I like finding optimal solutions to a problem, and sometimes I get a liiiitle too obsessed with the small details.

What is your favorite metabolite/metabolic enzyme?: Proline, obviously. 

What made you want to go into immunology?: I think that how interconnected everything is in immunology is super cool. I wanted to do science research that could help fight disease in people and benefit the health of others.

What do you like do to outside of lab?: Running!! 🙂 

 

Taewook Kang: Graduate Student (Cell Type: Memory T-wook)

What is one sentence that describes your work?:I look at improving CD8 T cell immunotherapy by genetic manipulation of pyruvate metabolism. 

If you could be any immune cell what would you be?: I would be a memory T cell: My lifestyle and work style is slow and steady. I am a minimalist and want to live healthy and a long life.

What is your favorite metabolite/metabolic enzyme?:Pyruvate

What made you want to go into immunology?: I thought that immunology looks like a world in a game where players all evolve over time. 

What do you like do to outside of lab?: I like to cook and swim. I ski in the winter as well. 

 

Alex Turnquist: Graduate Student (Cell Type: Neutroph-Al) 

What is one sentence that describes your work?: I study how  to alter metabolic programming in T cells to better promote tumor killing and maintenance of anti-tumor responses. 

If you could be any immune cell what would you be?: I would be a neutrophil because I work in chaotic spurts and sometimes have a hard time regulating how excited I get about things. I've yet to puke out my guts, but there's a lot of time left in grad school for that to happen. 

What is your favorite metabolite/metabolic enzyme?:Biiiiig ADH fan 

What made you want to go into immunology?: I became interested in immunology because I loved how complicated it was and how many questions there were left to answer. I wanted to do something that could help people, and I also thought that I would sound really smart if I told people I was an immunologist. 

What do you like do to outside of lab?:I like to cuddle with my cats, take care of my many plants, do music-y things (you're looking at the 2022 M&I karaoke champion here), go to the Norwich farmers market, and hike around the Upper Valley.  

 

Isabel Petron: Undergraduate Student (Cell Type: Double positive naïve Isa-cell)

If you could be any immune cell what would you be?: Isabel has been labeled by the other members of the Usherwood lab as a double positive thymocyte because she is young, full of possibilities, and ready to take on whatever comes at her at university.

What is your favorite metabolite/metabolic enzyme?:Caffeine is my favorite metabolite: I'm an instant human, just add coffee, to quote Alicia's desk decoration

What made you want to go into immunology?: I've previously only learned about metabolism through my basic biology classes, so I'm excited by the opportunity to learn more about it and understand more about the complexities of metabolism in our immune system. Also my BIO12 TA was very nice to me and made me want to do it. 

What do you like do to outside of lab?: I like to read, run, hang out with friends, snuggle with my dogs, and cook and eat good food. 

 

Young Usherwood, PhD: Lab Manager (Cell Type: Dendri-Young Cell)

What is one sentence that describes your work?:   I manage the lab expenses and ordering and I am the lab's molecular biology core.

If you could be any immune cell what would you be?:  A dendritic cell, so my processes can keep in touch with everything going on in the lab.

What is your favorite metabolite/metabolic enzyme?:   Glucose - my cakes would not be tasty without it!

What made you want to go into about immunology?:  I am fascinated by how different parts of the immune system work together during disease, and learning about ways we can manipulate different processes to improve immunity to cancer and infectious disease.

 What do you like do to outside of lab?:  I like to paint, cook and tend my flower garden in the spring and summer.

 

Ed Usherwood, PhD: PI (Cell Type: Basoph-Ed)

What is one sentence that describes your work?:  We strive to improve the quality T cells used for immunotherapy, which will improve their effectiveness regardless of targeting strategy.

If you could be any immune cell what would you be?: The basophil because they are rare and mysterious……..

What is your favorite metabolite/metabolic enzyme?:  Acetyl-CoA because it is versatile and always at the center of things.

What made you want to go into you about immunology?: As a young child a radioactive T cell degranulated on me. Ever since then I see these immune networks in my head.

 What do you like do to outside of lab?: Baking bread, hiking and being a perpetually disappointed England soccer fan.

 

Lab Alumni/-ae

Joshua Obar - Associate Professor, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.

Shinchiro Fuse - Partner/Managing Director TPG Life Sciences Innovation.

Mike Molloy - Director, ImmuNext.

Rameeza Allie - Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania, Hershey.

Zhuting Hu - Scientist, ElevateBio.

Rebecca Crepeau - Medical Publications Manager, Aptitude Health.

Ji-Young Hwang - Scientist II, Repertoire Immune Medicines.

Yanbo Sun - Postdoctoral Fellow, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Ji-Young Hwang - Senior Researcher, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology.

Kristine Valenteros - Scientist CMC, Takeda Pharmaceuticals.

Christopher Carroll - Graduate student, Florida State University

Nicholas Preiss - Orange Grove Bio