Elina Zuniga

Dr. Elina I. Zúñiga is currently Full Professor at the Division of Biological Sciences, University of California San Diego (UCSD), La Jolla, CA. She was honored with the highest recognition for best academic performance during her undergraduate education at the Argentinean National University of Cordoba and completed her PhD on Trypanosome cruzi infection at the same institution and via an internship at the Birmingham Medical School, United Kingdom. Her doctoral thesis work was recognized with an international award from the Belgium State Secretary for Development Co-operation. She then was awarded two prestigious post-doctoral fellowships from Antorchas Foundation and Pew Charitable Trust to perform a five-year post-doctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla CA, where she studied Dendritic Cells, T cells and anti-viral immunity. In 2007, Prof. Zúñiga joined the UCSD Faculty to initiate her independent research program and since then she has received several honors including the Leukemia and Lymphoma Scholar Award, the American Cancer Society Scholar Award, the Vilcek Finalist Prize For Creative Promise and the American Association of Immunologists Vanguard Lecture honor, among others. Prof. Zúñiga’s laboratory studies immune responses during viral infections in order to reveal general principles of immune-regulation, which are expected to have important implications for boosting anti-pathogen and anti-tumor defenses as well as treating other immune-related diseases. Her team analyzes both the innate and adaptive arms of the immune system, the multiple cells they entail and their interactions among themselves and with non-immune elements. Indeed, Prof. Zúñiga’s work has uncovered many fundamental aspects of Dendritic Cell, Interferon and T cell biology that broadened our general understanding of immune-regulation. Her laboratory research has also illuminated the pathogenesis of mammarenaviruses, which cause fatal hemorrhagic fevers and represent credible biodefense threats for which there are insufficient countermeasures. Her research work has been published in numerous scientific papers communicated in top-tier journals including Science, Cell, Nature Immunology, Immunity, Cell-Host & Microbe, Journal of Experimental Medicine, Nature Communications and Plos Pathogen, among others. Her research program has been funded by highly competitive grants from the National Institute of Health (NIH), the American Cancer Society, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the Lupus Research Alliance, among others. Prof. Zúñiga’s has delivered scientific lectures at numerous conferences or research institutions worldwide, and participated in several conference scientific advisory boards and grant review committees. She is currently stable member of the Virology B Study Section at NIH. Apart from the aforementioned research activities Prof. Zúñiga is director of the core undergraduate and graduate immunology courses at UCSD, serves in (and chair) multiple university committees and actively contributes to the diversity and inclusion efforts of the university. She has trained a large number of undergraduate, master and PhD students as well as post-doctoral fellows, who have moved successfully to their preferred independent positions in academia or industry.