Education
Undergraduate: University of Rochester
MD/PhD: Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Residency: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Alena graduated from the University of Rochester with a degree in Biochemistry, and prior to that grew up in upstate NY. During her time at U of R she began doing research with HIV-1 and became very interested in infectious diseases and virology. She then started an MD/PhD program at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx where she graduated with a PhD in microbiology and immunology. For her PhD she studied the structure and function of antibody isotypes. Alena then completed a research track Internal Medicine residency at the Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, and is currently an Infectious Diseases Research Fellow at UNC. Here at UNC, her research is on antibody responses to flavivirus infections, focusing on Zika and Dengue virus infections.
Publications
Janda A, Bowen A, Greenspan NS, Casadevall A. Ig Constant Region Effects on Variable Region Structure and Function. Front Microbiol. 2016 Feb 4;7:22.
Janda A, Eryilmaz E, Nakouzi A, Pohl MA, Bowen A, Casadevall A. Variable Region Identical IgA and IgE to Cryptococcus neoformans Capsular Polysaccharide Manifest Specificity Differences. J Biol Chem. 2015 May 8;290(19):12090-100.
