Our Team
Anya O’Neal, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Anya obtained her Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. She performed her doctoral research with Dr. Joao Pedra, where she studied tick-borne diseases and characterized a receptor for the Immune Deficiency (IMD) pathway in ticks. Then, she completed postdoctoral work with Dr. Justin Perry at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center studying how solute carrier (SLC) transporters regulate apoptotic cell clearance by macrophages.
In 2025, Anya started her independent research group in the Lyme and Tickborne Diseases Institute (LTBDI) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Kimiya Noor
ScM Student/Research Assistant
Kimiya received her B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Emporia State University. She is currently a Masters of Science (ScM) student in the Molecular Microbiology and Immunology Program at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Kimiya studies how tick immune cells maintain homeostasis and facilitate tick-borne bacterial infection through apoptotic cell clearance.