Lab Members
Current lab members
Our research team consists of an interdisciplinary and collaborative group of scientists that advance our science by working hard and having fun along the the way to make original research findings that meaninfully advance knowledge in human retrovirology. We take pride in the diverse and inclusive research environment that drives and advances our research goals.
Lab Head
Administrative Support
Louis M. Mansky, Ph.D.
Professor and Director
Dr. Mansky has been engaged in virology research for 40 years. His research on retroviruses began at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, University of Wisconsin - Madison under the guidance of Dr. Howard M. Temin. Dr. Mansky is the founding director of the Institute for Molecular Virology at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, which serves to unite and promote collaborative, interdisciplinary interactions among researchers to advance virus research. Dr. Mansky's advising statement for Ph.D. students can be found here. Email: mansky@umn.edu
Kari Bowen
IMV Administrator
Kari provides a wide variety of administrative support to our research group on top of her administrative duties to the Institute for Molecular Virology as well as the Division of Basic Sciences. Email: kbowen@umn.edu
Postdoctoral Fellows
Heather M. Hanson, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Heather's research is directed at investigating human retrovirus-host cell interactions. She has been the driving force behind the Mansky lab's implementation of transcriptomic analysis for uncovering important new host cell proteins that play important roles in human retrovirus replication. Heather also leads the lab's studies of virus transmission at cell-cell contacts. As a Ph.D. student, Heather was the recipient of a 4-year NIH F31 fellowship. Email: hans4784@umn.edu
Isaac Angert, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Isaac has exceptionally strong expertise in both virology as well as quantitative fluorescence imaging. instrumentation. His research continues to create new insights into key aspects of the human retrovirus particle assembly pathway. In particular, he is focused on investigating the role of the actin cortex in acting as a physical barrier to human retrovirus assembly as well as the implementation of super-resolution cryogenic light and electron microscopy for investigating virus-host protein interactions at particle assembly sites. He has successfully competed for NIH T32 support as both a predoctoral as well as a postdoctoral fellow. Isaac is co-mentored by Dr. Joachim Mueller. Email: ange0079@umn.edu
Huixin Yang, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Huixin's research is directed at elucidating the critical interactions that are involved in driving human retrovirus particle assembly and are essential in forming immature particles, virus maturation, and the creation of mature, infectious particles. Huixin is the driving force in the investigation of structure-function analyses via site-directed mutagenesis. As a Ph.D. student, Huixin was responsible for creating well over 100 site-directed mutant for advancing her dissertation research. Huixin is co-mentored by Dr. Wei Zhang. Email: yang5928@umn.edu
Rayna Addabbo, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Rayna's research is directed at the implementation of quantitative fluorescence microscopy approaches in order to investigate critical aspects in the of human retrovirus particle assembly pathway. During her time as a postdoctoral fellow, she was awarded fellowship support from the NIH TL1 program. Rayna is co-mentored by Dr. Joachim Mueller. Email: rayna@umn.edu
Graduate Students
Gloria Baxter
Ph.D. Student
Gloria's research is directed at mining RNA transcriptome data to investigate human retrovirus-host cell interactions. Gloria actively collaborates with Heather Hanson on her research. Gloria was an undergraduate student at The College of St. Scholastica. She has competed and was awarded individual fellowship support from the NIH to pursue her doctoral research. Email: baxte258@umn.edu
William Arndt
Ph.D. Candidate
Bill is multifaceted having a wide array of technical and conceptual expertise in many aspects of the lab's ongoing research. His main passion lies in the analysis of human retrovirus particle morphology and maturation through the use of cyro-electron microscopy and tomography (cryo-EM/ET) in order to obtain high-resolution structural information regarding virus structure and function. Bill was an undergraduate student at the University of Minnesota. He competed and was awarded fellowship support from the IMVTraining Program. Bill is co-mentored by Dr. Wei Zhang. Email: arndt255@umn.edu
Shuyu Meng
Ph.D. Candidate
Shuyu is investigating the structure and function of the human retroviral matrix domain and its role in virus-membrane and virus-host cell protein interactions. Her particular focus is on the structure and function of the human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) matrix domain. Shuyu was an undergraduate student at Colorado State University. She collaborates with Isaac Angert on her research along with the lab of Dr. Jamil Saad at the University of Alabama - Birmingham. She is also actively collaborating Nora Wilkomm on the proteomics analysis of human retroviruses. Email: meng0137@umn.edu
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Jiaxin Wei
M.S. Student
Jiaxin is engaged in a structure-function analysis of human retroviral capsid proteins in collaboration with Huixin Yang. Jiaxin was an undergraduate student at the China Pharmaceutical University. Email: wei00302@umn.edu
Nora Willkomm
Ph.D. Candidate
Nora has investigated human retrovirus host-cell interactions and utilized proteomics analysis in order to identify novel cellular proteins that are involved in human retrovirus replication. Nora was an undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin. Nora collaborates with Heather Hanson and with Shuyu Meng. Nora is a dual degree student (DDS-PhD) and as part of her career development succeeded in competing and being awarded a NIH F30 fellowship. Email: willk035@umn.edu
Luoan Xu
M.S. Student
Luoan is investigating the structure of the immature HIV Gag lattice by using image reconstruction methods from cryoEM data. In particular, he is focused on studies with HIV-2. He was an undergraduate student at Purdue University. Luoan is jointly mentored by Drs. Wei Zhang and Louis Mansky. Email: xuxx1146@umn.edu
Undergraduate Students
Elsa Higbie
Elsa collaborates with Heather Hanson and Gloria Baxter on investigating human retrovirus-host cell interactions. She has participated in the MnCORE Program and LSSURP in 2023. Email: higbi003@umn.edu
Madeline Damkot
Madeline collaborates with Heather Hanson and Rayna Addabbo on the study of human retrovirus-host cell interactions. She will begin in the 4+1 Environmental Health MPH program in the Fall 2024. Email: damko002@umn.edu
Alexandra Carlson
Alexandra collaborates with Bill Arndt on the investigation human retroviral capsid-host protein interactions. Email: carl6603@umn.edu
