Daniela Čiháková, M.D., Ph.D., D(ABMLI)
Principal Investigator / Lab Director
Dr. Čiháková’s Johns Hopkins profile
Dr. Daniela Ciháková is Professor of Pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She also has a joint appointment in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology. Dr. Ciháková is an American Board of Medical Laboratory Immunology (ABMLI) certified clinical laboratory immunologist and an Associate Director of Immunology Clinical Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Ciháková was named the new Deputy Director for Faculty Development.
Her research focuses on the cardiac immunology and understanding how immune cells and cardiac stromal cells contribute to the pathogenesis of various cardiovascular diseases such as myocarditis, dilated cardiomyopathy, pericarditis, myocardial infarction or check point inhibitors induced cardiac inflammation and congenital complete heart block. She also studies autoimmune disorders such as Sjögren’s syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis and gluten associated diseases in schizophrenia.
Dr. Ciháková earned her M.D. and Ph.D. from Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University in 2006. Dr. Ciháková joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 2008.
Dr. Ciháková research has been supported by the NIH/NHBLI, American Heart Association, Children’s Cardiomyopathy Foundation, W.W. Smith Charitable Trust, Mirowski Discovery Award, National Organization for Rare Diseases, American Autoimmune Related Disease Association (AARDA), Sjögrens syndrome Foundation, Matthew Poyner MVP Memorial Myocarditis Research Foundation and Myocarditis Foundation.
Monica Vladut-Talor, MSc.
Senior Research Specialist
Role: Manage, coordinate, and supervise the day-to-day operations of the research laboratory, in the Department of Pathology, JHU.
Conduct all sample processing for Epigenetic study in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Participate in all aspects of the research lab, maintain budges, orders, contracts and renew all biohazard registrations and relevant protocols. Conduct all mice genotyping and oversee the management of the animal colony. Preform all assays involved in the Confirmatory Double blinded placebo-controlled efficacy Trial of a gluten-free diet in a subgroup of persons with Schizophrenia who have high levels of anti-gliadin antibodies.
Professional Training: MSc. degree in Microbiology, University of Ottawa, Canada, (1985). Joined the laboratory of Noel Rose at School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University in 1987. Instrumental in obtaining the Clinical Laboratory License for the Immunologic Disorders Clinical Laboratory at JHU in 1988. Ran the CLIA and CAP certified Immunologic Disorders laboratory from 2008-2016 under the directorship of Dr. Daniela Cihakova.
Main interests: Contribute and support research in the laboratory with special emphasis in investigating autoimmune myocarditis and autoimmune thyroid disease. Help establish and participate in collaborative and ongoing studies within and outside of JHU. Perform, expand, validate, and collaborate to bring in-house a large repertoire of tests that help in the diagnosis and subsequent treatment of patients with autoimmune diseases.
Abdel Rahman Daoud, B.S., M.S.
Programming Analyst
Abdel Rahman Daoud graduated with a B.S. in biomedical engineering and biochemistry with minors in computer science and biology core curriculum from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During his undergraduate study, he worked on several short-term projects that spanned foci, such as molecular neuroscience, biomaterial design and virology. For the past year and a half, he had been working on a physiology project with the UW-Madison Biology Core Curriculum Department that focused on the optimization of husbandry conditions for the maintenance of California Blackworms, an annelids species utilized conventionally as a vascular biology tool by high school teachers and college professors. Currently, Abdel is a Master of Health Science student in the Molecular Microbiology and Immunology Department of the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Abdel’s primary role in the Čiháková Lab includes contribution to efforts that aim to analyze data collected from sequencing cardiomyocyte nuclei isolated from mice and human heart tissues. Abdel received his Master’s Degree in May 2023 and continues to work on the CODA project in the Cihakova lab.
Post-Doctoral Fellows
Robin Welsh, Ph.D.
Dr. Robin Welsh received her Ph.D. in Immunology from Johns Hopkins University in 2021. As both a Post-doctoral Fellow and Doctoral candidate she worked in the laboratory of Dr. Scheherazade Sadegh-Nasseri focusing on the in vivo roll of an MHC Class II accessory protein, HLA-DO, on CD4+ T cell development and activation. In particular, she was interested on what impact loss of HLA-DO had on regulatory T cells.
Dr. Welsh also holds an M.Sc. in Molecular biology and a B.A. in Biology from Smith College. Working with Dr. Steven Williams, she investigated genetic changes in the filarial nematode B. malayi during the transition from the mosquito vector to a mammalian host. In Dr. Čiháková’s laboratory, she will be attempting to induce a more regulatory immune environment in the heart during both EAM and viral myocarditis thereby lessening disease severity. “
Ph.D. Candidates
Camille Jaime, B.S.
Camille Jaime was born and raised in Manati, Puerto Rico. She graduated in 2020 with a B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Iowa. During her undergraduate studies, she worked in the lab of Dr. Ashutosh Mangalam, investigating the effect of high-fat diet and differing HLA mouse strains on the gut microbiota and their role in the onset of multiple sclerosis. She also contributed to the work of Dr. Larry Pease at the Mayo Clinic as a summer intern to develop an in-vivo CART cell mouse model.
Currently, she is a Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate Program of Immunology for the School of Medicine. Her focus in the Čiháková lab is to understand the minimum requirements for the induction of autoimmune disease in different myocarditis mouse models and to learn the surgical protocol for murine myocardial infarctions. In addition to autoimmunity, Camille has a passion for diverse representation in STEM and effective science communication. She hopes one day to be as cool as everyone else in the lab and to own a Pembroke Welsh corgi.
Ina Sulkaj B.A.
Ina was born in Albania. She graduated in 2017 with a B.A. with Honors in Neuroscience from Boston University. During her post-back she worked as a research assistant at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in the Transplant Department and at David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. During her time as a research assistant she worked in bioengineering the immune system to ameliorate transplant rejection and developing CAR-T therapies against solid tumors. She began her time at Johns Hopkins in 2021 as Ph.D. candidate in the department of Immunology. She joined Dr. Cihakova’s lab in May 2022 and has been working to understand the immune signaling involved in the differentiation of monocytes to macrophages following heart injury.
Master’s Candidates
Shagun Lukkad
Hailing from India, I earned my Bachelors degree in Biotechnology at Fergusson College, and am now immersed in the pursuit of a Masters degree in the same field. Throughout my academic journey, I have consistently gravitated towards the fascinating field of Immunology, driven by its profound foundation in combating autoimmune diseases and cancer through therapeutic interventions. I aspire to pursue a PhD in Immunology in the future.
Wonyoung Jo, B.S.
Wonyoung Jo graduated with a B.S. with Honors in Bioengineering from Washington State University in 2022. During his undergraduate studies, he worked in the lab of Dr. Wenji Dong, investigating a paper-based nucleic-acid amplification (NAA) test for rapid diagnosis of COVID-19 infection by modeling cascading CRISPR reactions with artificial Y-shaped DNA. Currently, Wonyoung is a Master of Science student in the Biomedical Engineering Department of the Whiting School of Engineering and the School of Medicine. In the first year of his Master’s degree, he conducted research on SHAPR (SSB-Helicase Assisted Rapid PCR), a novel isothermal amplification method, in the lab of Dr. Taekjip Ha. His primary role in the lab was to standardize experimental conditions and design experiments to understand the mechanism of SHARP. He joined Dr. Čiháková’s lab in May 2023. His work in the Čiháková laboratory focuses on knocking out specific immune checkpoint inhibitors on T cells using CRISPR to study the effects of treatments on autoimmune diseases such as myocarditis in mouse models.
Vivian Sun
Vivian graduated with a B.S. with Honors in Immunology and Molecular Biology from the University of Toronto in 2024. During her undergraduate studies, she worked in Dr. Adria Giacca’s lab, where she investigated the role of Nod1 in insulin resistance and glucose intolerance induced by a high-fat diet. She also spent a summer as a research student in Dr. Fan Zhou’s lab at Tsinghua University, studying embryonic development markers in mouse at stages E4.5 to E7.0.
Vivian is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in the Molecular Microbiology and Immunology Department at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. In October 2024, she joined Dr. Cihakova’s lab, where her research focuses on the correlation between T cells and fibrosis in myocarditis, using mouse models.
Xinyi Zhong
Xinyi Zhong was graduated from Xi ‘an Jiaotong University in 2023. Xinyi now is a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University majoring in Medical Imaging Processing with specific focus in deep learning techniques. During her undergraduate studies, she has done many projects on image processing, including the optimization of forest de-fogging systems, the identification and classification of spinal joint lesions and brain tumor lesions. Currently, in the Čiháková Lab, she is focused on the role of applying deep learning AI technology to ANCA research, such as feature extraction, segmentation and classification of images through different staining patterns, and detection of disease conditions.
Zhiwen Dong
Zhiwen graduated from Chongqing Medical University with a degree in Bachelor of Science in clinical pharmacy and finished one year’s clinical training rotation in Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. During his undergraduate studies, he investigated the role and mechanism of sialic acid in cardiovascular diseases in Dr. Limei Ma’s lab.
He is currently a graduate student in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Since October 2024, he has been focusing on cardiac immunology in Dr. Cihakova’s lab.
Undergraduate Students
Srithan Ram Thammineni
Ram is undergraduate student at Johns Hopkins University majoring in Neuroscience with specific focus in computational neuroscience. He has had experience in multiple spheres of computational medicine including creating a convolutional neural network that diagnoses Multiple Sclerosis with high accuracy and working with the Department of Veterans Affairs to develop and write a research paper about the Clinical Trials Selector. Ram also has a passion for public health which led him to working under the wing of the Director of the National Artificial Intelligence Dr. Gil Alterovitz on a joint venture between Harvard Med School and a confidential international conglomerate to establish labs and hospitals in India. At Čiháková Lab Ram is developing a machine learning model to diagnose myocarditis via analysis of noninvasive imagine modalities such as MRI, CT, and PET scans. In his free time, Ram loves to play basketball, cook, and travel around the world.
Shreyanshu Ray
Shreyanshu Ray is a current undergraduate student at Johns Hopkins University with a major in Biomedical Engineering and minor in Computer Science. He began his journey in scientific research under the guidance of Dr. Joshua Hutcheson at Florida International University. His work in the Hutcheson lab focused on a project that aimed to develop a method to quantify aortic valve strain values for mouse models. Currently, in the Čiháková Lab his work is focused on the role of different cytokines in the pathogenesis of specific inflammation and autoimmune diseases, such as myocarditis, induced in mouse models.
Bianca Kolim
Bianca Kolim is an undergraduate student at Johns Hopkins University majoring in Molecular & Cellular Biology with a minor in Computational Biology. She has formerly worked on epigenetics research at the Lundquist Institute and modeling immune cell interactions in Python. At the Čiháková Lab, Bianca is working on analyzing data from mice and human heart tissues using single-cell RNA sequencing and CODA to computationally produce 3D reconstructions of the heart.