IIB 2024 Year in Review

As 2024 draws to a close, we celebrate the accomplishments of the Duke Integrative Immunobiology Department. This year has been marked by outstanding achievements in research, successful collaborations and training—all to strengthen our mission to understand the basic mechanisms of immunity and inflammation in health and disease. Our faculty continues to run robust research programs supported by 13.3 million dollars from federal agencies, industry, and foundations. In 2024, IIB investigators published groundbreaking papers in Cell, Cell Host & Microbe, ELife, Journal of Cell Science, Journal of Experimental Medicine, Journal of Immunology, Mucosal Immunology, Nature Medicine, PLoS Pathogens, Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences, and Science Immunology, among others. Of particular note, IIB faculty member Dr. Barton Haynes was among the most highly cited authors for 2024 in the Web of Science.

This year, we welcomed our newest IIB faculty member, Diana Remy Dou, PhD, coming to us from Stanford University. We are excited to have her here and see her research program to study the role of lncRNAs in autoimmune diseases flourish. We also welcomed two new members to the IIB family: Staci D. Bilbo from the Department of Psychology and Neurosciences and Julia Oh from the Department of Dermatology. Drs. Bilbo and Oh strengthen our training programs in neuro immunity and microbiome-immune system interactions.

This year members of IIB were recognized for their scholarly contributions and service to the community. Three IIB faculty members were awarded distinguished professorships: Georgia Tomaras, as the A. Geller Distinguished Professor for Research in Immunology; Kevin Saunders as the Norman L. Letvin M. D. Distinguished Professor in Surgery and the Duke Human Vaccine Institute; and Xunrong Luo, as the Boyce Haller Distinguished Professor in Nephrology.

• David Tobin was elected to the American Academy of Microbiology, the highest distinction among microbiologists.
• Jörn Coers earned a MERIT Award from the NIH for his work on Chlamydia infections.
• Trainees Agastya Sharma and Joshua Hatterschide were selected for National Research Service Awards (NRSA) from the NIH.
• PhD Candidate Jessica Portillo was awarded a “Diversity Matters Award” from the Duke Microbiome Center and selected for the leadership training program by the American Society for Microbiology.

This Fall, we welcomed our latest cohort of Grad Students to the Immunology PhD training program. Angel Garza Reyna, Meghan Grogan, Kaitlyn Lewars, Emma Martin, and Gabriella Torres have just finished their first semester and are fully immersed in laboratory rotations and in our community.

We also congratulate the four students who defended their PhD theses this year: Selena Lorrey, Charlie Mu, Justin Rucker, and Sherry Wang. They are already on the path to the next stages in their careers. We wish them the best!

Our faculty, staff, and trainees remained engaged in our local community. Prominent activities included participation in the NC Science & Engineering Fair, the 2024 Durham Big Sweep by Keep Durham Beautiful, the Root Causes Fresh Produce Program, and a holiday gift drive for the Duke Child Life Program. We also remain committed to EDI activities, including hosting a booth at the Durham Pride Parade to educate the community on basic principles of immunology and infectious diseases, as well as organizing events to celebrate our diverse communities’ many contributions to the immunology field.

In the Spring, we held our first Annual IIB Spring Celebration to wrap up the academic year, recognize important career milestones by our staff, and celebrate our newly minted PhDs. In September, we returned to Wrightsville Beach for our Annual Fall Retreat—two days of sharing science, building community, enhancing our communication skills, and learning from past trainees about careers and opportunities after graduation.

This year, we mourned the passing of Dr. Thomas Tedder, the founding Chair of the Department of Immunology. In addition to his foundational work on B cell function, he developed treatments for patients with autoimmune diseases such as neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder. His vision, leadership, and many contributions to our understanding of autoimmune diseases will have a lasting impact on our scientific community.

We look forward to continuing to grow our faculty ranks in the coming years with an ongoing search for a new Assistant Professor in tumor immunology in partnership with the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology. We continue to pursue partnerships with other departments and institutes to identify additional hiring opportunities. Similarly, we will seek to broaden the number of IIB-affiliated investigators and PhD training faculty through increasing interactions with faculty in clinical departments at the School of Medicine, and Engineering and Natural Sciences on campus.

Overall, we have had a very successful year and look forward to building upon our accomplishments in 2025. I know we face many unknowns regarding new federal priorities and commitments to investment in research and education. Nonetheless, we remain steadfast in our overarching goal of understanding and harnessing the immune system to further human health.

Please follow us on LinkedIn for the latest news on departmental activities and to update us on what you have been up to, as we would love to strengthen the connection between current and past department members. Please also consider supporting our educational mission.

You all make this a fantastic department and the possibilities are boundless!