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Amber M. Smith, Ph.D. Principal Investigator Amber is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the Institute for the Study of Host-Pathogen Systems at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, and has a joint position in Microbiology, Immunology, and Biochemistry. She received her B.Sc. in Mathematical and Computer Sciences from the Colorado School of Mines, M.S. and Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of Utah, and postdocs in Biophysics and Theoretical Biology at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and Infectious Diseases at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. |
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Amanda Smith, M.S. Lab Manager/Senior Research Specialist Amanda holds a B.A. in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Colorado, Boulder and an M.S. in Infectious Disease and Microbiology from the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh. Her graduate work focused on the cutaneous immune response to dengue virus. Before joining the lab in 2014, she worked as a lab manager and technician at the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Vaccine Research, studying Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) and dengue virus immunology. |
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Nicole Bruce, Ph.D. Postdoc Nicole received a B.S. in Applied and Computational Mathematics and a Ph.D. in Mathematics both from Florida State University. She previously worked on developing mathematical models of insulin release from pancreatic cells and analyzing omics data for biomarkers of sepsis. She is interested in modeling immunity and integrating omics data into mechanistic models. |
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Cailan Jeynes-Smith, Ph.D. Postdoc Cailan completed his Ph.D. in applied mathematics at the Queensland University of Technology in 2024. He is passionate about collaborating with biological experts and leveraging mathematical tools to understand and manage biological phenomena. Cailan’s work centers on system dynamics, applying these principles across diverse biological scales, from intracellular signaling and from immunology to ecology. |
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Jordan Weaver, Ph.D. Postdoc Jordan completed his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh in 2022. He also has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering fro the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. His research interests include developing mechanistic models of viral infections, virtual patient cohorts, and open-source Python tools. |
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Amaya Weerasinghe Graduate Student Amaya received her B.Sc. in Medical Laboratory Sciences from the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences in Sri Lanka. Before joining the biomedical sciences graduate program at UTHSC, she worked as a Research Assistant at the Sri Lanka College of Endocrinology and as a Teaching Assistant at the same university where she graduated. |
Alumni
| 2023-2024 | Juliano Ferrari Gianlupi, Postdoc |
| 2020-2023 | Ivan Ramirez-Zuniga, Postdoc |
| 2023 | Faith Glover, Medical student |
| 2018-2021 | Lubna Pinky, Postdoc |
| 2020-2021 | Rosemary Aogo, Postdoc |
| 2018-2020 | Sydney Busch, Summer Student/Biomedical Modeler |
| 2020 | Ali Shannon, Summer student |
| 2015-2019 | Lindey Lane, Senior Research Assistant |
| 2016-2019 | Maggie Myers, Rhodes-St. Jude Summer Plus Student/Biomedical Modeler |
| 2015-2018 | Gaby Hochu, St. Jude POE Summer Student/Biomedical Modeler |
| 2017-2018 | Emily Weatherman, Summer student |
| 2015-2017 | Veronika Bernhauerova, Postdoc |
| 2014-2017 | David Moquin, Medical student |
| 2016-2017 | Kimbra Turner, Postdoc |
| 2015 | Luciana Tavares, Visiting graduate student |
| 2015 | Amy Mirro, St. Jude POE summer student |
| 2013 | Hayley Arceneaux, St. Jude POE summer student |







