LAB TEAM

Gee Lau

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Professor of Pathobiology
Email: geelau@illinois.edu
Phone: (217) 333-5077
Fax: (217) 244-7421

Brief biography.  Gee came from Malaysia where he finished high school. He received his B.S. (1990) and M.S. (1992) degrees in Bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and PhD (1997) from Purdue University, studying the genetics and molecular pathogenesis of the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe grisea under Al Ellingboe and John Hamer, respectively. He did a 2-year postdoc with David Holden at the Imperial College School of Medicine, examining functional genomics of virulence in Streptococcus pneumoniae. He did a second postdoc with Laurence Rahme at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School studying modulation of Drosophila innate immunity by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Between 2002-2006 he was a research assistant professor under Frank McCormack at the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, studying lung-bacterial pathogen interactions. He joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2006, where he is currently Professor of Pathobiology.

Celina Chong

SOOK YIN CHONG (Celina)

GRADUATE STUDENT

EMAIL: sychong2@illinois.edu

Brief biography. Celina is originally from Malaysia. She completed her BS  in the Department of Agronomy and MS in Microbiology at the Institute of Food Science and Technology, both from the National Taiwan University, Taiwan. She joined the lab as a PhD student in 01/2022. Her thesis projects focus on the host-pathogen interactions between Streptococcus pneumoniae competence regulon-regulated virulence and lung.

Johnny Lew

SHI QIAN LEW (JOHNNY)

GRADUATE STUDENT

EMAIL: sqlew2@illinois.edu

Brief biography. Johnny is originally from Malaysia. He completed his BS and MS in the Department of Biochemical Science and Technology, Division of Microbiology, from the National Taiwan University, Taiwan. He joined the lab as a PhD student in 01/2022. His thesis projects focus on the regulation of airway mucus secretion in the diseased lungs.

Cong (Arya) Wu

CONG (ARYA) WU

GRADUATE STUDENT

Description: Arya is originally from Sichuan China. She completed her DVM and M.S. at the Chinese Agricultural University in Beijing, China, working on diagnostic viral immunology. She joined the lab as a PhD student in 08/2023. Her thesis projects focus on the regulation of airway mucus secretion in the diseased lungs by novel transcription factors.

Udeni Walgamage

UDENI WALGAMAGE

GRADUATE STUDENT

Description: Udeni completed her DVM at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine & Animal Science, University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka. She will join the lab in August 2024. Her Ph.D. projects will investigate novel vaccine candidates against Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Anna Zhang

ANNA ZHANG

GRADUATE STUDENT

Description: Anna Zhang obtained her BS and MS from the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the UIUC. She will investigate molecular and cellular mechanisms that mediate the breach of alveolar-capillary barrier by Streptococcus pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Mila Ataei

MILA ATAEI

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT

Description: Mila is currently a UIUC Sophomore majoring in Biochemistry. She will join the lab in March 2024. She will assist Dr. Lau in characterizing antibacterial properties of novel antimicrobial peptides.

Jonathan Lau

JONATHAN LAU

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT

EMAIL: jlau18@jhu.edu

Brief biography. Jonathan has been a summer and winter intern since he was a high school student at the University of Illinois Laboratory High School. He is currently a senior majoring in the Biomedical Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. In collaboration with the Hayouka lab (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), he is currently working on deciphering the antibacterial properties of random antimicrobial peptide mixtures.