Lab Life

Amanda Victory, accompanied by Dr. Shannon Loftus and Mitra Maz, at the University of Michigan Medical School white coat ceremony. Congratulations, Amanda, we are so proud of you!

Graduation party for Dr. Shannon Loftus for completing her PhD degree.

U-M seniors Andrew Hannoudi, Jon Musai, and Zeran Zhang (L to R) graduate.

Amanda Victory hard at work assembling the lab's new (non-squeaky) cart!

Bin Xu, PhD running in the London Marathon in April 2023.

Congratulations to Jacob Martens who passed his preliminary exam on March 7 and is now an official PhD candidate in the Immunology Graduate Program.

Congratulations to Dr. Bin Xu who competed in the Glass City Marathon in Toledo, Ohio. Dr. Xu finished 7th in his age group and qualified for the 2022 New York City and Chicago Marathons!

Kahlenberg Lab members united and committed to making lupus history!

Dr. Bin Xu modeling our new lab t-shirt.

Grad students Shannon Estadt (left) and Mitra Maz (right) get their COVID vaccines in style!

Shannon Estadt, BS, a graduate student in Dr. Kahlenberg’s lab, received the Student Achievement Award from the Rheumatology Research Foundation to present her abstract “Interferon Alpha Promotes Caspase-Dependent Apoptosis Independently of Reactive Oxygen Species in Ultraviolet B Exposed Keratinocytes” at the 2019 ACR Annual Meeting.

Ms. Estadt is working to understand the cell death pathways that are activated in keratinocytes by type I interferons and ultraviolet (UV) light to gain a better understanding of why patients with lupus experience photosensitivity. She has found that priming keratinocytes with interferons prior to exposure to UV light promotes caspase-8-dependent apoptosis, suggesting that interferon-driven extrinsic apoptosis may contribute to photosensitive responses. This work will hopefully lead to new treatments for SLE patients whose disease is flared by the sun.

Undergraduate student,Tyson Moore, receives a ribbon for his poster at the annual Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) Research Spring Symposium.

Postdoctoral fellow, Sirisha Sirobhushanam, PhD, standing with undergraduate student, Josh Banfield, while he presents his work.

Sonya Wolf-Fortune, PhD, an Immunology Program Graduate Student and research assistant in Dr. Kahlenberg's lab, presented her thesis "The role of Type I Interferons in TLR7-Mediated Lupus and UVB-Induced Immune Cell Responses" on April 22, 2019.

Sonya Wolf-Fortune, PhD, with mentor, J. Michelle Kahlenberg, MD, PhD.

Sonya Wolf-Fortune & Shannon Estadt take a much needed break.

A favorite t-shirt among the Kahlenberg lab members.

L to R: Jianhua Liu, Grace Hile, Sonya Wolf-Fortune, Shannon Estadt, Nazy Gharaee-Kermani, Sirisha Sirobhushanam, J. Michelle Kahlenberg, Tamra Reed, Jessica Turnier.