News
August 2025: Congratulations to Celeste for being selected as a 2025 Gilliam Fellow! This HHMI program provides support and training to pairs of students and mentors, with the goal of launching promising PhD students into impactful scientific research careers while fostering inclusive training environments. We are thrilled to be joining the Gilliam community!
July 2025: It was great to be at the American Society for Virology meeting in Montreal!
Lazear Lab presentations:
Margaret Dedloff (oral): IFN-L antiviral immunity during congenital ZIKV infection
Mikhala Dorminey (flash talk + poster) No-known-vector flaviviruses exhibit diverse pathogenic phenotypes in mice
Abbie Weight (oral) LACV exhibits lineage-specific and age-dependent susceptibility phenotypes in wild-type and Collaborative Cross mice
Cormac Lucas (oral) IFN-L signaling in barrier tissues limits flavivirus dissemination and neuroinvasion
Celeste Robles (poster) Investigating the Role of Hormonal Status in Susceptibility to Vaginal HSV-1 Acute Infection and Recurrent Disease in Mice
Nigel Goins (poster) HSV produces diverse pathogenic outcomes in Collaborative Cross mice
lazear lab at asv 2025: celeste, joel, abbie, nigel, mikhala, cormac, margaret, helen
margaret presenting at asv 2025
mikhala at her asv 2025 poster
cormac presenting at asv 2025
celeste at her asv 2025 poster
abbie presenting at asv 2025
nigel at his asv 2025 poster
unc at asv 2025: celeste, joel, abbie, nigel, mikhala, cormac, margaret, nick, tim, ruby allaura, david, helen
helen presenting in a symposium session at asv 2025
July 2025: Congratulations to Celeste and Abbie for passing their written qualifying exams!
May 2025: Lots to celebrate as we close out this academic year! Tommy graduated with a BS in Biology from UNC (we’re glad to have him staying on as a technician!), Autumn and Nigel were accepted to the BBSP graduate program at UNC, Alex and Taras finished their rotations and joined our lab and the M&I graduate program, Margaret received a Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the UNC graduate school, and more. So proud of this group!
May 2025: At the annual Microbiology & Immunology Graduate program welcome event we welcomed 25 new PhD students to the M&I Department. The new students presented about the research projects they will be pursuing, recited their graduate student oath, and received their new lab coats. A special welcome to Alex and Taras who are joining the Lazear Lab!
April 2025: Welcome to Alex Sakai and Taras Chicz who are joining the Lazear Lab and the Microbiology & Immunology graduate program! Alex will be using genetically diverse mouse models to study neuroinvasive flavivirus pathogenesis and Taras will use molecular virology approaches to investigate how RNA changes affect Zika virus pathogenesis. We are excited to have them on our team!
April 2025: Congratulations to Margaret for receiving a Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the UNC Graduate School! Margaret is using mouse pathogenesis models, flow cytometry, and sophisticated microscopy approaches to study how IFN-L acts at the maternal-fetal interface to restrict Zika virus congenital infection, and this fellowship support will help her complete these studies and finish her dissertation.
March 2025: The Microbiology & Immunology Department Retreat was a great opportunity to interact with our M&I colleagues and share our work. Margaret, Mikhala, and Cormac gave flash talk presentations; congratulations to Abbie for winning a Best Poster award!
Lazear Lab dec 2024: tommy, cormac, mikhala, nigel, peter, melissa, helen, margaret, abbie, taras, alex, celeste, autumn, Paola
December 2024: Happy Holidays from the Lazear Lab!
lazear lab silly t-shirt exchange
October 2024: Congratulations to Mikhala for passing her qualifying exam and advancing to PhD Candidacy! Stay tuned for all the cool things she's going to discover about no-known-vector flaviviruses!
June 2024: The Lazear Lab had a great time at the American Society for Virology conference hosted by Ohio State University! Drake and Margaret had packed rooms for their presentations and Mikhala had non-stop traffic at her poster!
lazear lab at asv 2024: margaret, mikhala, helen, drake
drake presents at asv 2024
margaret presents at asv 2024
mikhala presents at asv 2024
Drake presented his work investigating the skin-specific effects of IFN-λ in the context of herpes simplex virus infection and the ability of IFN-λ to act through STAT2-independent pathways. Margaret presented her work investigating the protective and pathogenic effects of IFN-λ during congenital Zika virus infection. Mikhala presented her work investigating the virulence and pathogenic phenotypes of no-known-vector flaviviruses.
lazear lab + alumni: tesia, viren, margaret, becca, drake, mikhala, helen
ASV was a great chance to see Lazear Lab alumni, including former UNC undergrads Viren Baharani (grad student, Rockefeller) and Tesia Bobrowski (grad student, Mt. Sinai) and former grad student Becca Casazza (postdoc, Duke).
June 2024: Thanks to Mikhala for arranging a behind-the-scenes tour of the mammalogy collection at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences - we all learned a lot on this field trip!
abbie + an echidna
lazear lab at the nc museum of natural sciences: drake, margaret, celeste, mikhala, abbie, tommy, melissa, alex, helen, nigel, peter
May 2024: At the annual Microbiology & Immunology Department Graduate Program Welcome Ceremony we welcomed the new students joining the M&I PhD program! The new students received gifts from the 3rd year class, donned their new lab coats, and recited their graduate student oath.
A special welcome to Abbie Weight and Celeste Robles who are joining the Lazear Lab! Abbie will be studying arbovirus pathogenesis and how host genetics affects the outcome of infection. Celeste will be studying how neuronal stimuli affect HSV latency and reactivation and how hormonal status affects susceptibility to HSV infection. Look out for cool virology research to come from these two great students!
Congrats to Drake who received the 2024 Manire Award, presented each year to "an outstanding M&I graduate student who is judged to have carried out the most significant and impressive research project during his or her career at UNC" - a well-deserved honor for the great work Drake has done during his PhD.
Drake investigated skin-specific effects of IFN-L, discovering an immunomodulatory mechanism by which IFN-L signals in both neutrophils and keratinocytes to limit the severity of HSV skin lesions. For more details check out his paper in mBio.
Drake also developed a new mouse model for HSV reactivation. This model is very easy and tractable; we're excited to use it to study the effects of IFN-L during recurrent HSV disease, and to investigate the neurobiology of HSV infection. You can find out more in his preprint.
April 2024: The 17th Southeastern Regional Virology Conference was a great opportunity to learn about the outstanding virology research happening throughout our region! Great talks from Drake, Margaret, and Mikhala and fun times with our regional and UNC colleagues at SERVC 2024!
UNc at servc 2024
Drake presenting his research at Servc 2024
margaret presenting her research at servc 2024
mikhala presented her research at servc 2024
unc at the georgia aquarium
lazear lab at the georgia aquarium
