Jenkins Lab Graduate Student Alumni
Graduate Students
Sarah Asch, M.D., M.S.
Program: MICaB
Defense Year: 2003
Advisor: Marc Jenkins
Dissertation Title: "Characterizing Antigen Presentation to CD4+ T Cells in Non-lymphoid Tissue. "
Current Position: Pediatric Dermatologist, HealthPartners/Park Nicollet, St. Paul, MN 
Zongming Chen, M.D., Ph.D.
Program: Microbiology
Defense Year: 1998
Advisor: Marc Jenkins
Dissertation Title: "In Vivo Analysis of Antibacterial T Cell Immunity: Tracking the Antigen-Specific CD4 T Cell Response to a Recombinant Antigen Expressed in a Bacterium. "
Curren
Contact Info: zechen@geisinger.edu
Hon Man Hamlet Chu, Ph.D.
Program: MICaB
Defense Year: 2009
Advisor: Marc Jenkins
Dissertation Title: "Analysis of the Pre-Immune T Cell Repertoire. "
Current Position: Scientist, Gilead Sciences, San Francisco, CA
Contact Info: hamlet.chu@gmail.com
Dimuthu Renuka Desilva, Ph.D.
Program: Microbiology
Defense Year: 1995
Advisor: Marc Jenkins
Dissertation Title: "The Induction and Maintenance of Unresponsiveness in Interleukin-2 Producing T-lymphocytes. "
Current Position: Associate Director, Regulatory Medical Writing, Janssen Research & Development, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Philadelphia, PA
Contact Info: ddesilva@its.jnj.com
Benjamin Ehst, M.D., Ph.D
Program: MICaB
Defense Year: 2002
Advisor: Marc Jenkins
Dissertation Title: "Design and Characterization of a Model of Murine Skin Graft Rejection: Visualizing the Immune Response Against a Defined Minor Transplantation Antigen. "
Current Position: Dermatologist, Baker Allergy, Asthma and Dermatology, Portland, OR and Investigator, Oregon Medical Research Center, Portland, OR
Contact Info: behst@oregonmedicalresearch.com
Jason Hataye, M.D., Ph.D.
Program: MICaB
Defense Year: 2006
Advisor: Marc Jenkins
Dissertation Title: "Cell Competition for Survival and Proliferation Resources Defines the CD4+ T Cell Niche. "
Current Position: Infectious diseases physician-scientist at the National Institutes of Health (Richard Koup lab), Bethesda, MD
Contact Info: jason.hataye@nih.gov
Stephen Huddleston, M.D, Ph.D.
Program: Surgery
Defense Year: 2009
Advisor: Marc Jenkins
Dissertation Title: "Graft Antigen Specific CD4+ T Cells Require CD154 Expression to Clonally Expand and Differentiate to the TH1 Phenotype and Initiate mTOR Dependant Intimal Hyperplasia in Cardiac Allografts. "
Current Position: Cardiothoracic surgeon at St. Luke's Hospital- Duluth, MN, Assistant Professor, Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of Minnesota
Contact Info: huddl007@umn.edu 
Elizabeth Kearney, M.D., Ph.D
Program: Microbiology
Defense Year: 1995
Advisor: Marc Jenkins
Dissertation Title: "Visualization of Antigen-Specific CD4+ T cell Responses inVivo. "
Current Position: Internal Medicine, Abbot Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis MN
Contact Info: bkearney01@msn.com
Dmitri Kotov, PhD
Program: MICaB
Defense Year: 2019
Advisor: Marc Jenkins
Dissertation Title: "The role of T cell receptor affinity in CD4+ T cell differentation. "
Current Position: Postdoctoral fellow (Russell Vance lab), University of California, Berkeley
Contact Info: kotov003@umn.edu
Jessica Kotov, PhD
Program: MICaB
Defense Year: 2019
Advisor: Marc Jenkins
Dissertation Title: "CD4+ T cell differentiation and help to B cells."
Current Position: Postdoctoral fellow (Jason Cyster lab), University of California, San Francisco
Contact Info: yang3636@umn.edu
Jonathan Linehan, Ph.D.
Program: MICaB
Defense Year: 2012
Advisor: Marc Jenkins
Dissertation Title: "The Generation and Maintenance of TH17 Cells in Response to Bacterial Infection. "
Current Position: Researcher, Department of Cancer Immunology, Genentech, South San Francisco, CA
Contact Info: linehan.jonathan@gene.com 
Rebecca Merica, Ph.D.
Program: Microbiology
Defense Year: 1999
Advisor: Marc Jenkins
Dissertation Title: "Study of an Antigen-Specific CD4 Memory T Cell Response inVivo. "
Current Position: Science Educator, Dine' College, Shiprock, New Mexico
Contact Info: rmerica@dinecollege.edu
Ryan Nelson, M.D., Ph.D.
Program: MICaB
Defense Year: 2014
Advisor: Marc Jenkins
Dissertation Title: "The Origin and Function of a Large Naive CD4+ T Cell Population. "
Current Position: Resident (Pediatrics), Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA
Contact Info: nels5471@umn.edu
Antonio Pagan, Ph.D.
Program: MICaB
Defense Year: 2012
Advisor: Marc Jenkins
Dissertation Title: "Roles of CD28, Inducible Costimulator, and the Interleukin-2 Receptor in Helper T Cell Memory Formation. "
Current Position: Postdoctoral fellow, University of Cambridge (Lalita Ramakrishnan lab), Cambridge, UK
Contact Info: ap825@cam.ac.uk
Kathryn Pape, Ph.D.
Program: Pathobiology
Defense Year: 1997
Advisor: Marc Jenkins
Dissertation Title: "Physical tracking of CD4 T cells during the induction and circumvention of peripheral tolerance. "
Current Position: Senior Research Associate, Univ. of Minnesota, Center for Immunology
Contact Info: papex001@umn.edu
Richard Lee Reinhardt, Ph.D.
Program: MICaB
Defense Year: 2002
Advisor: Marc Jenkins
Dissertation Title: "In vivo Generation and Migration of Memory CD4 T Cells During the Course of a Primary Immune Response. "
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Research, National Jewish Health, Denver, CO
Contact Info: ReinhardtR@NJHealth.org
Lori Schneider Rusch, Ph.D.
Program: MICaB
Defense Year: 2006
Advisor: Marc Jenkins
Dissertation Title: "Analysis of Peptide: MHC II Complex Production by Dendritic Cell Subsets in Skin-Draining Lymph Nodes Reveals Multiple Mechanisms of Adjuvant Action. "
Current Position: Senior Clinical Trial Manager at Coloplast Corp, Minneapolis, MN
Kevin B. Urdahl, M.D., Ph.D.
Program: Microbiology
Defense Year: 1993
Advisor: Marc Jenkins
Dissertation Title: "The Effects of Cyclosporin A on T Cell Development and Tolerance Induction. "
Current Position: Associate Professor, Center For Infectious Disease Research; Affiliate Associate Professor of Immunology and Global Health, University of Washington; Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University of Washington/Seattle Children’s Hospital
Contact Info: kevin.urdahl@cidresearch.org