IVAYLO (IVO) IVANOV

Associate Professor

Department of Microbiology & Immunology

Columbia University

Ivo obtained a B.Sc. in Biotechnology and M.Sc. in Molecular Biology from Sofia University in his native Bulgaria. He obtained his Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from The University of Alabama at Birmingham. He performed his thesis work on generation of antibody repertoire diversity with Dr. Harry Schroeder, Jr. at UAB. He then joined the laboratory of Dr. Dan Littman at the Skirball Institute at New York University as a Postdoctoral Fellow in mucosal immunology. He joined the faculty of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Columbia University in 2011.

SHEILA BANDYOPADHYAY

Postdoctoral Scientist

Sheila obtained her Ph.D. in Cell & Molecular Biology from Rutgers University. There, she studied epithelial cell biology and the role of Rho GTPase CDC42 in enteric Salmonella infections in the lab of Dr. Nan Gao. She joined the Ivanov Lab in 2024 to study the role of intestinal immunity in obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Selected Publications:

Balasubramanian I*, Bandyopadhyay S*, Flores J, Bianchi‐Smak J, Lin X, Liu H, et al. Infection and inflammation stimulate expansion of a CD74+ Paneth cell subset to regulate disease progression. The EMBO Journal. 2023 Nov 2;42(21):e113975.

Bandyopadhyay S, Zhang X, Ascura A, Edelblum KL, Bonder EM, Gao N. Salmonella engages CDC42 effector protein 1 for intracellular invasion. Journal of Cellular Physiology. 2024 Jan;239(1):36-50.

Montazid S*, Hart DW*, Bandyopadhyay S*, Gao N, Gazinska P, Penn DJ, et al. Characterisation of the naked mole rat intestine reveals unique epithelial cell dynamics. Nature Communications. In Press.

GRIFFIN DEANS

Research Technician

MADELINE EDWARDS

Graduate Student - Microbiology and Immunology

Madeline received a B.S. degree in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology magna cum laude from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2016. She joined the Ivanov lab in 2018 and is currently working on the function of group 3 innate lymphoid cells in mucosal immunity.

Publications:

Reens AL, Crooks AL, Su CC, Nagy TA, Reens DL, Podoll JD, Edwards ME, Yu EW, Detweiler CS. A cell-based infection assay identifies efflux pump modulators that reduce bacterial intracellular load. PLoS Pathog. 2018 Jun 7;14(6)

Kawano Y, Edwards M, Huang Y, Bilate AM, Araujo LP, Tanoue T, Atarashi K, Ladinsky MS, Reiner SL, Wang HH, Mucida D, Honda K, Ivanov II. Microbiota imbalance induced by dietary sugar disrupts immune-mediated protection from metabolic syndrome. Cell. 2022 Sep 15;185(19):3501-3519.

JUNJIE MA

Postdoctoral Scientist

Junjie obtained his Ph.D. from Karolinska Institutet under the mentorship of Dr. Jonathan Coquet. During his PhD, he studied how infections affect the function of T helper cells in allergy and cancer model. He joined the Ivanov Lab in 2023 to study the phenotype and function of SFB-induced Th17 cells.

Select Publications:

Ma, J., Tibbitt, C. A., Georén, S. K., Christian, M., Murrell, B., Cardell, L. O., Bachert, C., & Coquet, J. M. (2021). Single-cell analysis pinpoints distinct populations of cytotoxic CD4+ T cells and an IL-10+CD109+ TH2 cell population in nasal polyps. Science Immunology, 2021 Aug 13;6(62)

Ma, J., Classon, C. H., Stark, J. M., Li, M., Huang, H.-J., Vrtala, S., Rosshart, S. P., Nylén, S., & Coquet, J. M. (2023). Laboratory mice with a wild microbiota generate strong allergic immune responses. Science Immunology, 2023 Sep 29;8(87)

ALEX TRAN

Research Intern

Alex joined the Ivanov Lab in 2019. He is currently a student at the Sophie Davis/CUNY School of Medicine.