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.
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.
Master’s Candidates
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. Zhiwen obtained his master’s degree in May 2026 and continuing to work in Dr. Cihakova’s laboratory.
Josie Qiao
Josie Qiao graduated with a B.S. in Biotechnology from Xiamen University. During her undergraduate studies, she investigated the regulation of anti-tumor immunology by Treg cells in Prof. Wen-Hsien Liu‘s Lab. In her senior year, she worked as an honor student in Prof Marie-Liesse Labat’s lab in WEHI, Australia. She mainly worked on evaluating candidate antigens for non-small cell lung cancer vaccines. Josie is a master’s student in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Joining in October 2025, she is currently focusing on the biomarkers of autoimmune diseases.
Varut Sereearuno
Varut graduated from Chulalongkorn University in Thailand with a B.E. in Petroleum Engineering. He then spent several years in the oil and gas industry, gaining experience in both operational and engineering roles. His responsibilities included managing high-value contracts, optimizing complex operations, and leading cross-functional teams on high-impact projects. He is currently a graduate student in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. In Dr. Cihakova’s lab, his current work involves using image processing and deep learning frameworks to reconstruct 3D human heart models from H&E stain images.
Xunyu Shen
Xunyu graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Science in Data Science and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree at Johns Hopkins University. Since May 2025, he has been working in Dr. Cihakova’s lab at the Department of Pathology, focusing on image classification for autoimmune disease diagnosis. His research applies weakly supervised multiple-instance learning (MIL) and deep learning models such as ResNet and Vision Transformer to improve diagnostic accuracy and interpretability.
Tianyu Wang
Tianyu graduated from the University of California, Davis with a Bachelor of Science in Biological Science, and he is currently a Master’s candidate at Johns Hopkins University in Biotechnology. He joined Dr. Cihakova’s lab in March 2026, focusing on proteomic analysis of myocarditis subtypes. In the lab, he is working to figure out the roles each lymphocyte, as well as other immune system components, plays in myocarditis development. On the other hand, he is interested in in vivo CAR-T cell therapy targeting leukemia and autoimmune diseases.
Haoran Xiang
I graduated with a B.S. in Molecular Cellular and Developmental biology and Applied Computational Math Science at University of Washington. During the undergrad, I worked in Dr. Tomas Mustelin’s lab investigating SLE and RA. I am currently a master student in the department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology. I joined the Cihakova Lab since September 2025, and I am currently working on sarcoidosis related immunology.