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. At NYU Ivo discovered that RORgammat is the master transcritional regulator of Th17 cells and that most intestinal Th17 cells at steady state are induced by the commensal bacteria SFB, which was the first example of a microbiota member that specifically regulates adaptive immunity. He joined the faculty of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Columbia University in 2011.

MADELINE EDWARDS

Postdoctoral Scientist

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 as a PhD student in the M&I Graduate Program to work on the biology of innate lymphoid cells. Madeline received her PhD degree in 2024 and is continuing as a postdoctoral scientist in the lab. She is currently working on characterizing the role of dendritic cells and macrophages 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.

Araujo LP*, Edwards M*, Irie K, Huang Y, Kawano Y, Tran A, De Michele S, Bhagat G, Wang HH, Ivanov II. Context-dependent role of group 3 innate lymphoid cells in mucosal protection. Science Immunology 2024, Aug 16;9(98): eade7530. *equal contribution

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)

AMRITA MISHRA

Postdoctoral Scientist

Amrita obtained her Ph.D. at the National Centre for Cell Science in Pune under the guidance of Dr. Girdhari Lal. Her doctoral studies focused on investigating the role of tachykinin signaling in CD4 T-cell differentiation during gut inflammation. In 2024, she joined the Ivanov Lab to study the role of intestinal microenvironment in regulation of mucosal T cell responses.

Jie Yin

Postdoctoral Scientist

Jie obtained his Ph.D. at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China under the guidance of Dr. Qingyi Tong and Dr. Yonghui Zhang. His doctoral studies focused on therapeutic strategies to alleviate acute liver failure through the gut-liver axis. He joined the Ivanov lab in 2024 to study the role of gut immunity in liver and metabolic diseases.

Select Publications:

Yin J, Zhao Z, Huang J, Xiao Y, Rehmutulla M, Zhang B, Zhang Z, Xiang M, Tong Q, Zhang Y. (2023). Single-cell transcriptomics reveals intestinal cell heterogeneity and identifies Ep300 as a potential therapeutic target in mice with acute liver failure.  Cell Discovery, 2023 Jul 25;9(1):77