The Team
Thea Brennan-Krohn MD, D(ABMM)
PI
Dr. Brennan-Krohn completed fellowships in Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Boston Children's Hospital (BCH) and in Clinical Microbiology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), as well as a postdoctoral fellowship in the Kirby Lab at BIDMC. She started her own lab and joined the faculty at BIDMC in 2022. Most of her time is spent in the lab, but she also performs clinical service time as an attending time on the inpatient Infectious Diseases service at BCH and in the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory at BIDMC. Her research is informed by her experience caring for patients with difficult-to-treat infections.
Michelle Nägeli
Postdoctoral research fellow
Dr. Nägeli received her MD from Sigmund Freud Medical University in Vienna, Austria, in 2022. Her medical school thesis was entitled "Reasons for delayed HIV testing in late presenters: A Questionnaire Study at the Department of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine at Klinik Favoriten in Vienna & Sigmund Freud Medical University." Since joining the Brennan-Krohn laboratory in 2022, she has been investigating antimicrobial activity of, and resistance to, the novel beta-lactamase inhibitor avibactam. Dr. Nägeli loves all things infectious diseases and is a founding member of the First Vienna Parasitology Passion Club.
Anusha Shukla
Research Assistant
Anusha earned a Bachelor of Science Degree with a concentration in Neuroscience from Denison University in 2022. As an undergraduate, she studied microbial RNA thermometers and was also a sabre fencer on the Varsity Women's Fencing team. She joined the Brennan-Krohn lab in 2022 and has been studying the effect of antibiotics on the growth of Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc) in an artificial sputum medium that mimics the conditions in the lungs of people with cystic fibrosis, where Bcc causes severe lung disease. Anusha has also been carrying out a high-throughput screen to identify compounds with direct or antibiotic-potentiating activity against Bcc.
Lab Alumni
Shade Rodriguez
Research Assistant 2019-2021
Current Position: PhD Student, Pathobiology Graduate Program, Brown University, Providence, RI
Liam Friar
Research Assistant 2018-2019
Current Position: PhD Student, Geological Sciences Department, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO