I joined Duke in 2017 to assist Dr. Crosby as a Lab Research Analyst/Technician. Prior to that, I worked back in my home state of Nebraska for an ISO certified company making hematology (and other bodily fluid) controls, and before that in an academic setting doing bird research.

In short, I have many varied years of experience working in a lab environment. Outside of work I try to keep up with my son who (at the time of writing this bio) is 1.5 years old. As such, I currently don’t have any free time or hobbies. Perhaps I may again when he is older. I love to cook and eat, most often you will hear me discussing food.

I received my bachelor degree in Biochemistry at NC State University; from there I received my doctorate in Medicinal Biochemistry at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro doing research broadly involving RNA based viruses and host selenoprotein interactions.

I am currently a trainee on the Viral Oncology Training Grant and I am lucky to have two mentors here, Dr. Erika Crosby and Dr. Zachary Hartman. My background is in biochemistry and molecular biology, but under Dr. Erika Crosby, I have expanded my background and am now skilled in mouse models and animal handling. I am also learning a lot about immunology and cancer biology and really loving it.

I love most of my work, especially work regarding structure/function or ligand/receptor interaction at the protein level (just don’t ask me how I feel about western blots). My current project focuses on cell surface receptor CXCR3, its ligands CXCL9, 10 and 11, and their relationship with T cell and macrophage activation/polarization and how that affects the progression of breast cancers.

When I’m not trying to get the smell of the mouse room off of me or running assays, I am usually harassing my infant son and trying to get him to roll over when he is clearly over tummy time. I enjoy stand-up comedy, boxing, hiking, science fiction/fantasy novels, my nespresso, and sitting on my porch discussing fan fiction with my husband.

My ultimate career goal is to pursue basic science research with a strong translational perspective. I earned my Bachelors of Technology degree in Biotechnology at the Vellore Institute of Technology, India.

In the fall of 2012 I continued my education in the Master’s in Biotechnology program at the University of Pennsylvania. As a part of my Master’s curriculum I did an independent study in the lab of Dr Wei Tong at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. My study was entitled the “Regulation of Hematopoietic Stem Cells (HSCs) by Lnk adaptor protein”. I then joined the lab of Dr Cecilia Lo at the University of Pittsburgh as a Research Technician to bolster my research credentials. I worked on “The Role of Sonic Hedgehog signaling in fibroblasts of human patients with congenital heart disease” as my primary project along with carrying out other lab duties.

Following this, I successfully completed my Doctoral degree in Immunology from the MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in the laboratory of Dr Eugenie Kleinerman, MD. My project focused on the role of neutrophils and neutrophil elastase in doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity.

I am currently a Postdoctoral Researcher, with Dr Hartman and Dr Crosby as co-mentors, having joined the lab in January 2023. I am excited to enhance my knowledge on cancer immunology and immunotherapy through my projects here and build my research career towards my goal of becoming an independent research scientist. Outside of the lab I am an avid sports fan and I also participate in weekly bar trivia contests.

He completed his Ph.D. in the field of Image processing (2008) at Anna University, India and joined as a postdoctoral fellow at MRC UCT Imaging center, Cape town, South Africa. He spent four years working with MRI image data and developed shape analysis pipeline.

In 2012 he joined Oncomark Ltd., specialized in Histopathological image analysis and supported several FP7 projects. During his presence he assisted in setting up Digital pathology Pipeline at Oncomark. Dr. Jesu joined molecular pathology group at AstraZeneca, Cambridge, United Kingdom in 2015 and supported image analysis project and developed his own deep learning pipeline to analyze histopathology images. In 2018, he Joined City of Hope, Duarte, California, in the Population Facing research core as Staff scientist and supported digital pathology initiative though his core.

Dr. Jesu has experience with commercial image analysis software include Aperio, Definiens, Halo, VisioPharm and Image management software such as Eslide manager and Pathcore. Dr. Jesu’s expertise is in the area of Image processing, Digital Pathology, Deep Learning, Software development and Data analysis. He joined Dr. Crosby’s lab group in December 2022. His hobbies includes photography, video editing, and cooking.