Meet the Team

pronouns: he/him

role: Principal Investigator

A proud Pitzer College alum, Patrick received his Ph.D. from the UW Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) Graduate Program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center under the mentorship of Harmit Malik and Michael Emerman, where he studied the evolution of host-virus interactions. Patrick next conducted his postdoctoral training with Russell Vance at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied the evolution, mechanisms, and functional consequences of innate immune sensors that detect 'pathogen-specific activities.' He's thrilled to be back in Seattle as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology at UW. When not in the lab, Patrick enjoys cooking and exploring the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. He's also an avid Seattle sports fan.

pronouns: she/her/hers  

role: Lab Manager

Megan is from the greater Boston area and has lived in Massachusetts most of her life. While earning her B. A. in Biological Sciences and Philosophy from Mount Holyoke College, she was an undergraduate researcher in the lab of Dr. Amy Camp, where she studied the localization of ATP synthase during sporulation in Bacillus subtilus. After graduating in 2019, Megan worked as a technician in the Laub Lab at MIT for two years, where she contributed to a variety of projects ranging from chromosome organization and DNA topology to toxin-antitoxin regulation to phage defense. She is now joining the Mitchell Lab as a lab manager, where she is excited to learn more about innate immunity and host-pathogen interactions. While working at UW, Megan will be pursing a Masters in Public Health with the hopes of building equitable health systems in under-served communities. In her free time, she enjoys exploring her new home in Seattle, baking and cooking, and going for day hikes with her partner.

pronouns: she/her/hers  

role: Research Technician

Shania was born in Dededo, Guam before moving to Puyallup, WA where she spent most of her childhood. She went to the University of Washington and graduated in 2021 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Microbiology. Her research career began her senior year when she joined the Reniere lab as a laboratory assistant and moved up to an undergraduate researcher position. During her time as an undergraduate researcher she was under the tutelage of graduate student Monica Cesinger. The two sought to learn more about the role of the transcriptional regulator spxA1 in Listeria monocytogenes in terms of determining cell shape. This was done by creating a GFP-FtsZ protein that would be put into L.monocytogenes and be used to observe the irregular septum ring formation that’s characteristic of ΔspxA1 bugs. Shortly after graduation, Shania was employed to be a full-time research scientist assistant and lab manager for the Reniere lab. Outside of the lab, she enjoys cooking/baking, drawing, going to farmers markets, and spending time with her rabbit, Oreo.

role: Graduate student

Jessie is from the San Francisco Bay Area in sunny California. She earned her B.S in Pharmacology from the University of California, Santa Barbara where she had her first research experience in Denise Montell’s lab studying the role of stress granules in anastasis, a form of cell recovery. After graduating, she returned to San Francisco to work in the lab of Andreas Puschnik at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub where she conducted genome-wide CRISPR screens to identify and characterize cellular host factors important for viral infection. Excited to further explore her passion for virology, Jessie bought a raincoat and moved to Seattle to pursue her Ph.D in the UW Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) Graduate Program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center under the co-mentorship of Patrick Mitchell and Michael Emerman (yes, the same one that mentored Patrick!). Outside the lab, Jessie enjoys biking, playing her ukulele, crocheting cute critters, and hanging out with her cat CRISPR Cats9

role: Graduate student

Christina was born and raised in California, where one can drive for multiple hours in any direction and find themselves still in California. Her interest in fictional pathogens from films and novels inspired her to pursue a B.S in Microbiology from the University of California, Davis. After graduating from UC Davis (literally the day after), Christina disappeared across the country to Maryland and spent the summer in the Vaccine Research Center at the NIH in the laboratory of Dr. Barney S. Graham. Her summer research project focused on targeting the conserved stem region of influenza hemagglutinin by displaying “headless” HA trimers on self-assembling nanoparticles. Following her summer internship, she returned as a postbaccalaureate research fellow where she focused on the structural characterization and conformational stabilization of influenza neuraminidase. The culmination of her research experiences motivated Christina to pursue her Ph.D. in the UW Microbiology Graduate Program under the mentorship of Patrick Mitchell (who reminded her that inflammasomes exist). During her free time outside of lab, you can either find her asleep or at the boxing/kickboxing gym.

role: Graduate student

Marisa was born and raised in the greater Seattle area. While earning her BS in Biology at the University of Washington she had her first research experience in Dr. Billie Swalla’s lab at UW's Friday Harbor Laboratories marine station where she spent a quarter studying the genetics of central nervous system regeneration in marine worms. Upon returning to Seattle, she spent the rest of her undergraduate career studying cleft palate pathogenesis in Dr. Kai Yu’s lab at Seattle Children’s. After graduating in 2018, she returned to her love of marine invertebrates and genetics and worked as a research technician at Pacific Northwest Research Institute in the lab of Dr. Michael Metzger where she studied transmissible cancers – cancer cells that have evolved to jump between individuals just like pathogens – in clams and mussels. Finding the rain suits her just fine, Marisa chose to stay in Seattle and pursue a PhD in the UW Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) program where she is super excited to learn more about innate immunity and host-pathogen interactions under the mentorship of Dr. Patrick Mitchell. While away from the bench, you can often find her cooking/baking, reading, or at one of Washington’s many beaches, looking for sea slugs.