Jillian Hurst, PhD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Associate Director, Duke Children’s Health & Discovery Initiative
Duke University School of Medicine
She/her
Description: This presentation will provide an overview of the role of the microbiome in mediating infectious disease and discuss environmental exposures that may modify microbiome composition.
About the speaker: Jillian is the research director of the Duke Children’s Health and Discovery Initiative (Duke CHDI) and an assistant professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Duke University School of Medicine. Jillian received her PhD in molecular pharmacology from the University of Georgia for her work on the regulation of lysophospholipid signaling pathways in ovarian cancer and neurodevelopment in Dr. Shelley Hooks’ lab. She then moved to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to work on ubiquitin-mediated regulation of MAP kinase cascades in Dr. Henrik Dohlman’s lab. Jillian next spent five years as science editor with the Journal of Clinical Investigation and JCI Insight, where she adjudicated research manuscripts and developed review articles and series across biomedical research disciplines.
As the research director of CHDI, Jillian facilitates multidisciplinary child health research to identify early life factors that contribute to long-term health and disease, building collaborations and research infrastructure across Duke University. Her research program research is focused on elucidating clinical and microbial features associated with recurrent infections in children, including integrating administrative and biological data to understand how early life exposures influence infection susceptibility.
Friday, August 29th, 2025
Field Auditorium, Room 1112, Grainger Hall (9 Circuit Drive, Durham, NC)
This seminar will also be presented live via Panopto. Click HERE for the livestream.