Principal Investigator

Shirit Einav

Shirit Einav is a physician-scientist in the Department of Medicine (Division of Infectious Diseases) and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine. After obtaining her MD from Tel-Aviv University in Israel, Shirit pursued Residency in Internal Medicine at Harvard University (Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) followed by fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Stanford University. She joined the faculty at Stanford in 2011. Her basic research program focuses on understanding the roles of virus-host interactions in viral infection and disease pathogenesis. This program is combined with translational efforts to apply this knowledge for the development of broad-spectrum host-centered antiviral approaches to combat emerging viral infections and means to predict their progression to severe illnesses. Shirit is an Investigator at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub in San Francisco and a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (FIDSA).

Current Members

Aakriti Gangwal - Postdoctoral Fellow

Aakriti received her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Delhi (India), where she studied regulation of bacterial pathogens via protein phosphorylation. In the Einav lab, she investigates signaling pathways mediated by understudied cellular kinases and explores their roles in regulating intracellular viral trafficking. Her work integrates these mechanistic insights with translational efforts aimed at developing host-directed, broad-spectrum antiviral strategies. Aakriti was awarded the Stanford School of Medicine Dean’s Fellowship award and the PhRMA Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Drug Discovery Targets and Pathways award. Outside of research, she loves hiking, stargazing, and exploring nature. 

Chieh Wen Lo - Postdoctoral Fellow

Chieh Wen received his Ph.D. in infectious disease control science from the University of Tokyo as a University of Tokyo Fellow. His PhD research focused on identifying cellular biomarkers predictive of infections and developing technologies for SARS-CoV-2 inactivation. Since joining the Einav lab, he has been studying the roles of tyrosine kinases in SARS-CoV-2 infection and lung fibrosis, advancing the development of direct-acting antivirals targeting alphaviruses and SARS-CoV-2, and studying the mechanism of action of host-targeted broad-spectrum antivirals. His work integrates the development of advanced novel lung organoids and mouse models, and utilizes both molecular virology and single-cell RNA sequencing approaches.

Do Tran - LSRP 1/ Lab Manager

Do received her MSc in Microbiology at the University of Natural Science, Vietnam. Before joining the Einav lab, she worked as a Research Assistant at the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, where she contributed to projects investigating the etiology and epidemiology of Gram-negative pathogens responsible for diarrheal diseases and hospital-acquired infections. Since joining the Einav lab in September 2021, she has been involved in advancing the development of several classes of host-targeted antiviral approaches using both in vitro and in vivo models. Additionally, Do is our lab manager.

Desiree Rodrigues Placa - Postdoctoral Fellow

Desiree earned her PhD in Science, Pharmacy, and Pathophysiology from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, where her research focused on characterizing the immune response to dengue virus to inform the development of safer and more effective vaccines, particularly for pediatric populations. Since joining the Einav Lab as a postdoctoral fellow in November 2024, she has been investigating the pathogenesis of flavivirus infections using clinical cohorts of dengue and Zika patients. She has generated high-quality CITE-seq datasets from clinical samples and is leading analyses aimed at refining our understanding of immune responses to flaviviruses. Her current work explores the interplay between adaptive immunity (e.g., T-cell responses and regulatory mechanisms such as exhaustion) and innate immunity (e.g., myeloid cell function and interferon responses), and how these interactions impact disease outcomes. Ultimately, her research aims to inform novel strategies for the prevention and treatment of flaviviral diseases.

Lennart Hermanussen - Postdoctoral Fellow

Lennart earned his medical degree from the University of Hamburg, Germany, where he also conducted doctoral research on hepatitis D virus, focusing on virus-host interactions and intergenotypic dynamics. Following this, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Leibniz Institute of Virology, Germany, during which he established a novel lymphoid tissue organoid model permissive to HIV infection. He also gained four years of clinical experience at the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. During that time, he contributed to translational research projects as a Clinical Scientist within the iDfellows program. Since joining the Einav lab in April 2025, he has been studying the pathogenesis of congenital Zika syndrome (CZS) using samples from a unique cohort of dizygotic twins discordant to CZS and advanced immune-organoid models. He has also been studying dysregulated innate immune responses in severe dengue pathogenesis in the Colombia dengue cohort.

Manon Gourdelier - Postdoctoral Fellow

Manon obtained her Ph.D. in Health Biology in December 2022 at the University of Montpellier in France. During her PhD, she studied how HIV-1, Influenza and SARS-CoV-2 hijack actin dynamics and identified a new proviral factor. She then pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Imaging in Paris, where she worked on the development of genetic approaches for the treatment of asthma. She joined the Einav lab in April 2024, where she is studying the roles of lipid kinases in healthy state and the pathogenesis of viral infections and neurodegeneration. Through this project Manon is participating in the Stanford SPARK program.

Manjari Mishra  - Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Manjari obtained her Ph.D. in membrane biophysics and chemical biology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India. During her PhD, she studied how pathogenic lipids from Mycobacterium tuberculosis alter host cellular functions by modulating host membrane organization and signaling pathways. Since joining the Einav lab in July 2022, her research has focused on understanding the roles of lipid kinases in the life cycle of coronaviruses and as targets for antiviral strategies. She has also been studying the mechanism of action and of peptides targeting viral envelopes. Her long-term goal is to develop broad-spectrum antivirals to counter future pandemics. Outside of work, she enjoys cooking and traveling. Manjari was awarded the Stanford Pandemic Preparedness Postdoctoral fellowship award.

Verónica Durán - Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Veronica obtained her Ph.D. in Immunology and Microbiology at the Hannover Medical School, Germany, where she studied innovative drug delivery systems targeting human immune cells. She holds an M.Sc in Molecular Bioengineering from the Technical University Dresden, Germany and a B.Sc in Microbiology from the University of The Andes, Colombia. Her research at the Einav lab focuses on understanding host factors involved in the immune response to Dengue virus (DENV) and how they determine disease presentation and severity. The work relies on PBMC and serum samples derived from a large (>500 patients) cohort of dengue patients that the Einav lab has established in Colombia. Veronica’s longer-term goal is to validate candidate biomarkers to predict progression to severe dengue for the development of molecular prognostic assays as well as new preventive and therapeutic interventions. Veronica is a Stanford-CZ Biohub collaborative postdoctoral fellow.

Former Members

  • Siavash Azari (2021-2022). Currently, working as an Environmental Scientist at California Department of Public Health.
  • Zhiyuan Yao - Postdoctoral fellow (2018-2022). Current position: Genentech/ Department of OMNI Bioinformatics - Scientist 3
  • Luca Ghita - Postdoctoral fellow (2020-2023). Current position: Genentech/ Department of immunology discovery – Scientist 3
  • Sirle Saul – Postdoctoral fellow (2018-2022).  Current position: NIAID/NIH, Research Fellow
  • Makeda Robinson – PhD student (2015-2020). Current position: Merck/Principal Scientist, Clinical Director
  • Ilham Osman – Undergraduate student/Bio-X (2018-2022), Post-bac student/Merrigan Scholar (2022-2023). Current position: Medical student, Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine
  • Marwah Karim - Postdoctoral fellow (2023-2025)
  • Busra Cagirici – Postdoctoral fellow (2023-2025)
  • Raiane Ferreira – Visiting PhD student (2024-2025) - Current position: PhD candidate, University of São Paulo, Brazil,
  • Ivy (Pei-Tzu) Huang – Postdoctoral fellow (2020-2021). Current position: Novo Nordisk, Senior Digital Strategy Partner
  • Sathish Kumar - postdoctoral fellow - 2016-2020. Current position: Staff scientist.
  • Stanford Schor - Graduate (MSTP) student - 2016 - 2020. Current position: Medical resident/fellow, Emergency Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati (Stanford) 
  • Rina Barouch-Bentov - 2011-2020 - Research Scientist. Current position: Research Scientist, Stanford.
  • Szuyuan Pu - 2014-2019 - Postdoctoral fellow. Current position: Scientist, Takara Bio USA. 
  • Fei Xiao - PhD, Postdoctoral fellow, 02/2015-05/2018, Current position: Yat-sen University, China/Professor and Vice president 
  • Gregory Neveu, PhD, Postdoctoral fellow, 03/2011-06/2015, Current position: senior virologist in the Virology Unit at Sanofi Pasteur
  • Elena Bekerman, PhD, Postdoctoral fellow, 08/2013-10/2016, Current position: Senior Research virologist, Department of Clinical Virology, Gilead Sciences, Inc.
  • Stanley Wang, MD/PhD, Postdoctoral fellow, 07/2012-01/2014. Current position: HCV Antivirals Development Department, ABBvie. 
  • Amotz Ziv-Av, PhD, Postdoctoral fellow, 09/2011-09/2012, Current position: COO & Co-Founder at BiomeOn, Israel
  • Yuan Jin Tan, Undergraduate student (Honor Thesis), 04/2014-08/2016, current position: Clinical Business Analyst Level 3 at NYC Health  and Hospitals