News

We are excited to announce that the Leung Lab is moving to the University of British Columbia! We been so lucky to learn, collaborate, and live in Salt Lake City. We will miss Daniel Leung and Grace Helen McGee greatly,…

For the last two weeks, our lab was glad to host Ruiyu Pu, DVM, PhD, a scientist in the Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida. Dr. Pu spent his time with us training on immunologic methods with various…

Last week, several members of our lab and collaborators traveled to Toronto, Ontario to attend the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) 2025 Annual Meeting. It was an energizing week filled with scientific presentations, inspiring talks, and well-deserved…

This week, The Leung Lab attended the 2025 University of Utah, Microbiology & Immunology Retreat in Midway, Utah. Our group was well represented with posters from Christy Clutter (Postdoc), Mary Vallecillo-Zuniga (Postdoc), Léna Mazza (Postdoc), Paola Fonseca Romero (PhD Student),…

This summer, we welcomed two undergraduate students into our lab and we could not be more impressed with all the hard work and dedication that they have shown! Carissa Chestnut joined us from SUNY Stony Brook University as part of…

Our lab kicked off the summer with a potluck to welcome all the new members who recently joined our team! We had a wonderful time connecting, sharing delicious food, and getting to know each other more. Here’s to another year…

We are proud to share that two members of the Leung Lab have been recognized with prestigious awards from the University of Utah’s Office of Undergraduate Research. Dr. Daniel Leung (PI) was awarded the 2025 Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor Award…

This week, Tatum Heiner and Ashley Lopez Flores (Lab Aides) presented their work at the 2025 Office for Undergraduate Research, Undergraduate Research Symposium (URS) at The University of Utah.  Sarah Dallas and Jane Putnam (Undergraduate Research Assistants) also presented their…

The Utah Conference for Undergraduate Research (UCUR) is an amazing opportunity for undergraduate students involved in research to present their work. This year, we were lucky to have two of our undergraduate research assistants present at this conference in Cedar…

An important aspect of the research done in our lab is informing and contributing to advancements in global health. Aparna Mangadu (Research Analyst) and Dr. Melissa Watt (Qualitative Collaborator) had the exciting opportunity to attend The Consortium of Universities for…

This December, Daniel Leung (PI), Aparna Mangadu (Research Analyst), and Melissa Watt (Qualitative Collaborator) had the unique opportunity to travel to Nepal and Bangladesh to engage and interact with our global collaborators. From December 8-10th, the team attended the 17th…

This November, current members and lab alumni traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana for the 2024 ASTMH* annual meeting. We had several people presenting posters, giving oral presentations, and hosting seminars.   Undergraduate research assistants, Sarah Dallas and Jane Putnam, presented…

The month of October was filled with celebrations for our lab. To congratulate Carmen and Olivia moving forward in their careers (and departing our lab), we went out for a celebratory lunch at Indochine Vietnamese Bistro. With lots of delicious…

In July 2024, current lab members and alumni came together to celebrate The Leung Lab’s 10th anniversary! The evening was filled with fantastic conversations, introductions for those meeting for the first time, and delicious food from Café Rio. We are…

The summer has flown by and among the highlights were several lab potlucks. The photos above don’t do it justice, but our team has some amazing cooking skills. Reasons for our gatherings included: 1) the receipt of institutional training grants…

Last weekend was our annual lab Holiday Party, and we took the occasion to celebrate the recent accomplishments of a couple of our graduate students. Owen Jensen and Daniel Labuz, students in the Molecular Biology graduate program, passed their prelims!…

As we mentioned in a previous post, recently at the ASTMH conference, we held a kickoff meeting for a project titled, “Development of a Bayesian diagnostic for etiological management of pediatric diarrhea.” This project is funded by the Bill &…

  Last week, 5 members of our group attended the Annual Meeting of the ASTMH (American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene) in New Orleans. We experienced some amazing Cajun food, street Jazz, and of course, the charms of the…

Over the summer, we’ve had a couple of bittersweet parties, where we celebrated achievements, welcomed new PhD students, and sent off two of our lab members. Michael Graves is leaving us to attend medical school in Iowa, and Cole Anderson…

Last week, we went out to Asian Tao to celebrate a few of our team’s recent achievements: 1) We received an R01 award, a 5-year grant from the NIH/NIAID. We will be working in collaboration with scientists at the icddr,b in Dhaka,…

Congratulations to Anita Iyer, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in our lab, who has been selected to receive an ASTMH (American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene) Annual Meeting Award, supported in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She will…

Congratulations to our Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) recipients for their poster presentations at recent research conferences! Joe Fuell presented a poster on “Immune Response to Native American Antidiarrheals” at the Utah Conference on Undergraduate Research in February (left photo),…

The Leung lab has been awarded a grant from the University of Utah’s Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Program in Personalized Health to identify biomarkers for refractory Clostridium difficile infection. Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is the most common…

Congratulations to our 3 University of Utah Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) grantees! Amanda, Joe, and Mait all received summer stipends to work on their research projects in our lab.  Amanda Barrett The purpose of my UROP project is to…