Chris Brooke
Principal Investigator
From Beaumont, TX. Kids, cooking, cycling, and music in his spare time.
B.A. Biology from Washington University, Ph.D. Microbiology & Immunology from University of North Carolina, Postdoc training at NIH
twitter: @_chris_brooke
Joel Rivera Cardona
PhD Student
Joel received his B.S. in Industrial Microbiology from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez in 2019 and joined the lab in January 2020. He is working on understanding the factors that influence the lack of immune activation during influenza infection. He is also characterizing the effects of viral evolution in shaping the immune antagonism potential of recent influenza strains. Joel is a coffee addict who spends his free time listening to music, cooking, and watching TV shows.
Tongyu (Tony) Liu
PhD Student
Tony is from Beijing, China. He received his B.S. at China Agricultural University, 2019. After joining the Ph.D. program in School of Molecular and Cellular Biology at UIUC, he joined the lab in December 2019 as a thesis student. Video games, photography, sleeping and dreaming fill his spare time.
Mireille Farjo
PhD Student
Mireille is from Ann Arbor, Michigan. She graduated from the University of Chicago with a B.S. in Biology in 2020 and joined the lab in January of 2021, where she will be studying co-infection and superinfection dynamics in flu viruses. She is a fan of creative writing and being outside.
Liz Thayer
PhD Student
Liz is originally from a small town near Kansas City, MO(!!). She left MO to get her bachelor’s degree from Purdue University, which she finished at the start of the 2020 pandemic. Then she joined the Brooke lab in December of 2020 as a Ph.D. student. Now Liz is studying host antiviral response to influenza to see why some cell populations are more susceptible to infection than others. She spends her free time playing with her dog, Rosie, and two cats, Pablo and Luna.
Steven Eichinger
PhD Student
Steven comes from the small town of Woodstock, IL (if you’ve seen Groundhog Day, the town-square is heavily featured). He studied biochemistry at North Central College—studying materials chemistry and developmental biology—before working as a lab tech at Loyola University Chicago, focusing on bacterial genetics. In the Brooke lab, his project is aimed at understanding viral reliance on specific codons through synonymous mutations. Out in the wild, music, Netflix, sports, and dishes keep him busy.
Gabi Shipman
PhD Student
Gabi comes from Lenexa, KS. She received her bachelor's degree from Kansas State University before joining UIUC for grad school. She joined the Brooke lab in December of 2023 as a Ph.D. student. Her love for coffee, good friends, reading, and video games occupy her time outside of the lab.
Katie Karecki
Undergraduate Student
Katie is from Wauconda, Illinois. She is working towards a degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology with a minor in Health Technology. Katie hopes to use her degree to make a career in biotechnology research, as well as earn a Ph.D. In the lab, Katie works on co-infection and superinfection exclusion dynamics in influenza. When she is not in the lab, she enjoys being outdoors, working out and listening to music.
Kyle Heimburger
PhD Student
Originally from Wheaton IL, Kyle obtained his bachelor’s in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in May 2023. Kyle just couldn’t get enough of UIUC, beginning his PhD journey in the Brooke Lab in December 2023. He is excited to explore the constraints that influence how influenza virus can mutate and evolve. Outside of the lab, Kyle enjoys running, cooking, and jamming out on his guitar.
Lab alumni:
Jiayi Sun, Ph.D. - Postdoc with Patrick Wilson at Weill Cornell
Meghan Diefenbacher, Ph.D. - Postdoc with Tim Sheahan at UNC
Fadi Alnaji, Ph.D. - Staff scientist with Marco Vignuzzi at A*STAR
Morgan Samanic - Student, UIC College of Medicine
Izabella Lach - Student, Creighton University School of Medicine
Keely Mannoochahr - Student, Kansas City University - College of Osteopathic Medicine
Joanna Droppo - IRTA postbac. fellow at NIAID
Will Reiser - MD student, UIC-Rockford
Neeha Kakuturu
Undergraduate Student
Neeha is from Schaumburg, Illinois, and is working towards obtaining a B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology. She plans to use her degree to become a physician, specifically a clinician educator. After joining Brooke lab in August of 2022, Neeha works on studying reassortment in recent human influenza viruses. Outside of the lab, she enjoys painting, watching/playing basketball, and spending time outdoors.