Research Staff

Karime is Brazilian Biologist who received her Masters in 2010 and PhD 2019 in Cellular and Molecular Biology. In her master’s degree, she worked with in vitro studies focused on the role of reactive oxygen species and nitrogen in the progression of chronic kidney disease in vascular cells. Karime’s Ph.D. thesis had the main objective to investigate the involvement of oxidant molecules in the signaling of migratory and proliferative processes of vascular cells during arterial intimal hyperplasia in response to pathological events, such as restenosis. Karime has had visiting Fellowship at Emory University, Atlanta-GA, where she worked with a leading researcher on the VSMC redox signaling pathways that control the cytoskeleton and cellular adhesive forces. In 2014, she had the opportunity to expand from basic research to clinical practice by joining the Laboratory of Immunogenetics at Hospital Cajuru (Brazil). Since then, she has been training in both serological and molecular histocompatibility techniques and studying risk assessment through anti-HLA antibody titration and the efficiency of patient treatments in desensitization protocols. Karime started in the Tambur Lab in 2023.

 In her free time she loves to spend time with her husband and dog daughter.

Desiree received her BS in Biology from Southeastern University in 2018, and her MA in Biomedical Sciences from Roosevelt University in 2021. After completing her master’s degree she began working in the Comprehensive Transplant Center at Northwestern University as a Medical Technologist. This is where she became extremely fascinated with transplant immunology. She started in the Tambur Lab in October of 2022.

In her free time Desiree likes to spend her time with her friends, traveling, and going to the beach.

Joey grew up in the small town of Kenora in Northwestern Ontario, Canada, before moving west to Calgary, where he earned a Master of Science degree in Host-Pathogen Interactions from the University of Calgary in 2014. Under the mentorship of Dr. Douglas Morck, Joey developed a novel system for growing anaerobic bacterial biofilms to evaluate innate immune responses. After a brief stint as an Animal Care Technician at Foothills Medical Center, Joey returned to bench science, building on the skills and methodologies developed during his MSc. He obtained his PhD from the University of Calgary in April 2022, specializing in neutrophil physiology and bacterial resistance to immune responses.

In July 2022, Joey joined Northwestern University as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Pathology, where he spent two years studying neutrophil recruitment and inflammation in the context of colitis and colorectal cancer. His passion for science led him to Dr. Tambur’s laboratory in 2024, where he intends to leverage his understanding of persistent infections and innate immunity to investigate the inflammatory mechanisms underlying antibody-mediated rejection in organ transplantation, with a particular focus on HLA expression and immunogenicity.

When he isn’t busy in the laboratory, Joey enjoys spending time outdoors; hiking, fishing, and golf are among his favorite activities. He is also an avid sports fan and looks forward to the upcoming hockey season (go Leafs!).

Connor received his PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the Driskill Graduate Program at Northwestern University in 2024, where he uncovered new mechanisms by which the innate immune system coordinates tissue regeneration after injury. During this part of his academic journey, Connor developed a keen interest in bioinformatics and enjoyed learning how to utilize advanced computational techniques to analyze and interpret complex biological data.

Currently, he now serves as a lead scientist within the Bioinformatics Core at the Comprehensive Transplant Center. He now aims to analyze intricate biological data to develop innovative solutions for pressing medical challenges within transplantation medicine. Outside of his professional endeavors, Connor enjoys spending time with his two dogs, Mo and Clara, and exploring the great outdoors. He and his fiancée, who is currently attending medical school in Virginia, often hike the scenic trails of the Blue Ridge Mountains during his visits.

Grace is a transplant nephrologist from the Philippines. She earned her medical degree from the University of Santo Tomas and her internal medicine and adult nephrology fellowship trainings at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute. She then pursued and completed a clinical fellowship in transplantation area of focus in solid organ transplantation at McMaster University – St. Joseph Healthcare Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. At McMaster, she was mentored by the medical director of transplantation and the HLA laboratory, Dr. Cristine Ribic, who nurtured her passion for transplant immunology as an integral component of kidney transplantation. She joined the Tambur Lab in June 2024 as a research scholar to continue to fuel this passion.

Grace loves to travel but in her free time, she enjoys reading books and is a member of an online McMaster alumni book club. Most of all, she loves her dog, a beagle, named Little Bee.

Alessandra is a Biologist and Specialist in Human Genetics who received her Masters in Health Sciences at the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná (Curitiba – Paraná – Brazil). In her academic life, she worked to understand the immune, cellular and genetics responses in human and murine models for different pathologies. She has worked in transplant immunology since 2010, when she started her activities at the Immunogenetics Laboratory of Hospital Cajuru (PR). She has held positions as a Techical Supervisor, Quality Analyst and Senior Analyst, where she developed her clinical knowledge in the immunology of transplantation. She started in the Tambur Lab in October of 2021.

Alessandra moved back to Brazil in August of 2024 where she is working in a clinical HLA lab. 

Maria is a nephrologist with special interest in kidney transplantation. She obtained her MD and nephrology degrees in Milan (Italy) in 2011 and 2017, respectively. Since 2018, she joined the Transplant Immunology research group at Bellvitge University in Barcelona, where she completed her PhD training, first supported by a Fellowship of the European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT). In 2021 she defended her PhD thesis alloimmunity in transplantation, studying both the humoral and T-cell harms of alloresponses and the role of HLA compatibility.

She is currently working at Vall d’Hebron University in Barcelona as transplant nephrologist and researcher at Vall d’Hebron Research Institute.

In 2022-2023 she had the opportunity to join Dr Anat Tambur’s research Lab at Northwestern University for a post-doc scholarship for a research project focusing on immunogenicity of HLA class II (DQ) molecules in kidney transplantation.

Chelsea received her BS in Integrative Biology from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2015, and her MS in Medical Laboratory Science from Rush University in 2019. She conducted her Master’s thesis in the Department of Pharmacology at Northwestern University, where she studied the immunological role of calcium signalling in inflammatory diseases and subsequently fell in love with the field of immunology. She started in the Tambur lab in May of 2019 as the only full-time research technologist. She worked in the Tambur lab from 2019-2022. 

Chelsea is now a Principal Research Associate within the Core Technologies Cell Analytics team at Universal Cells in Seattle doing pre-clinical research on gene-edited stem cells for cell therapeutics. 

Dylan is a fourth-year resident in Urology at Northwestern interested in becoming a transplant surgeon and urologist for transplant patients. He earned his BA in Neuroscience and Behavior from Columbia University, MPH in Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology from UC Berkeley and MD from the UC San Francisco School of Medicine. At UCSF he was mentored by Laurence Baskin, MD, Gerald Cunha, PhD and Thomas Chi, MD and performed research investigating the development of the human external and internal urogenital organs. He worked in the Tambur Lab during his research year of 2021-2022. 

Dylan loves the operating room and getting to know patients and their families. When not at work, he enjoys running along Lake Michigan, dancing and spending quality time with old friends.