Position(s):
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
Professor, Department of Biology
Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine

Office: 4020 MacAlister Hall

Phone: (215) 895-2620

Email: donna.murasko@drexel.edu

B.A. – Bacteriology, Douglass College of Rutgers – The State University, New Brunswick, NJ
Ph.D.– Microbiology, M.S. Hershey Medical Center, The Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA
Post doctoral Training – Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA
Post doctoral Training – Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME

Courses Taught

Univ 101: Drexel Experience
Univ 241: Modern Medicine
College of Medicine: Respiratory Viruses

Although my initial training was in tumor immunology, the focus of my research for more than 20 years has been the changes in immune response with increasing age. Utilizing both mouse models and human samples, we have focused on the immune response to viruses: control of primary virus infections in mice and protection from influenza disease after vaccination of humans. Due to the importance of CD8 T cell response in virus infections, most of our work includes CD8 T cells. We consistently demonstrate both an age-associated decrease and delay in response to virus using three different viruses, two strains of mice and humans. While previous studies focused on intrinsic changes in the CD8 T cells, more recently the role of extrinsic factors (eg. dendritic cells, T_reg, cytokine production) are being explored.

Shoko Nogusa: Age-associated dysregulation of NK cells during influenza infection

Yolanda Bey-Williams: Role of T_reg in CD8 T cell immunosenescence

Personal/Laboratory Website(s):