“Microbiome-Dependent Modulation of Mucosal Immunity at the Ocular Surface”

Anthony St. Leger received his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh under the supervision of Dr. Robert Hendricks in 2012. During his time in the Hendricks' lab, he showed that boosting the CD8+ T cell response in an ocular model of herpes simplex virus (HSV)-1 infection reduced viral reactivation and potential disease. After graduating, Anthony joined Dr. Rachel Caspi's lab at the National Eye Institute (NIH). There he studies how commensal bacteria at the ocular surface maintain immunity and protect the ocular surface from pathogenic infection.