Gudrun Debes, DVM
Principle Investigator 

Gudrun received her DVM degree in 2002 from the Free University Berlin after graduating in veterinary medicine and doing a thesis project on T cell chemotaxis under Alf Hamann at the German Rheumatism Research Center (DRFZ, Berlin, Germany). From 2003-2007, she did a postdoc with Eugene Butcher in the Department of Pathology at Stanford University working on T cell egress from tissues via lymph before starting an independent research program in late 2007 at the University of Pennsylvania and moving to Jefferson in 2016.

Shannon McGettigan, BA
PhD candidate in Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis

Shannon received her Bachelor of Arts in the Biological Basis of Behavior in 2009 from the University of Pennsylvania while studying emerging antimicrobial resistance in the Philadelphia region under Dr. Paul Edelstein. From 2009-2016, she worked at the University of Pennsylvania with Dr. Carl June on developing CAR T cell therapies. In 2016 Shannon began his PhD studies in immunology at Thomas Jefferson University and joined the Debes lab in 2017 to study the mechanisms by which IgM regulates IL-10 expression by B cells.

John Riley, MS
PhD candidate in Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis

John earned his Bachelor of Arts in general biology from La Salle University in 2008. While pursuing a master's degree in biotechnology (awarded in 2016), he also worked in the lab of Dr. William Armstead at the University of Pennsylvania studying neurotrauma. He began his PhD studies at Thomas Jefferson University in 2016 and joined the Debes lab in 2017 to study the migration and function of skin NK cell subsets.

Lazaro E. Aira-Diaz, PhD
Post-Doctoral Fellow 

Lazaro earned his Master’s in Biochemistry with mention in Immunology in 2014 from the University of Havana, Cuba, where he pursued a psoriasis-focused research project. He obtained a PhD in Immunology in 2018 from the University of Cote d'Azur, Nice, France. During his PhD studies, he worked with Dr. Sandrine Marchetti and managed three different projects related to the roles of Lyn tyrosine kinase in cell death and inflammation as well as the role of proinflammatory caspases in skin inflammation. Lazaro joined the Debes lab in 2018 and is currently working on skin-homing B cells that suppress skin inflammation.

Samantha Measner, BS
Research Technician

Samantha received her Bachelor of Science in marine science and biology from the University of Miami in 2016. During her undergraduate studies, she performed a research thesis under Dr. Liza Merly profiling baseline serum protein levels across several south Florida shark species. Samantha joined the Debes lab in 2018 and currently works on a human immunology and a skin inflammation project.