Staff and Students

Kheyanna Davis

Research Specialist

Traci Legere

Lead Research Specialist

Traci manages several collaborative studies focused on developing a vaccine for HIV.

Zeba Momin

Laboratory Assistant

Zeba's work involves sample processing and managing inventory of various collaborative studies. 

Ayalensh Shiferaw

Lead Research Specialist

Ayal is the key research personnel in the Amara lab who assists in the lab's functioning with expertise in sample processing and inventory.

Brenda Wehrle

Lead Research Specialist

Brenda is a key member with expertise in tissue and blood processing, LIMS inventory and shipping.

Kasey Stokdyk

Graduate Student

Kasey is a second-year graduate student in the immunology and molecular pathogenesis program. She is currently developing a project to investigate how the microbiome affects immune response to HIV vaccines. We are particularly interested in whether the gut microbiome can significantly skew vaccine response toward a strong type 1 modality, which the lab has shown to negatively impact protection against HIV. We will define correlations between microbial species or metabolites and immune response in NHPs, and then interrogate the nature of these correlations using mouse models.