Catherine M. Ptaschinski, PhD

Assistant Professor

Catherine Ptaschinski completed her PhD at the State University of New York in Syracuse, NY where she worked on developing an animal model of early-life coinfection with Epstein-Barr virus and malaria to study the etiology of endemic Burkitt’s lymphoma. This sparked an interest in early life immune development, which she then pursued in the context of respiratory syncytial virus infection as a postdoc at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She continued this line of research with additional postdoctoral work at the University of Michigan, where she continued as a research faculty member. She joined the Department of Pathology as an Assistant Professor in 2025. As a mucosal immunologist, her research encompasses allergic disease in the lung and gut.