Versiti Blood Research Institute is thrilled to welcome Nicholas Jarjour, PhD, and Hongxu Xian, PhD, as associate investigators in Hematopoiesis and Immunology.  

Jarjour earned his PhD at Washington University in St. Louis and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Minnesota. His research explores the evolution of tissue-resident immunity: how immune cells (T cells and macrophages) living within organs support health, respond to disease, and adapt over time as the body changes.  

“The beauty of studying tissue-resident immune cells is that they’re the key first-responders to almost any disease process,” Jarjour says. “If we can understand how to manipulate them, maybe we can make better vaccines or make vaccines for things that are difficult to vaccinate against, like tuberculosis.”   

Jarjour is excited to start his own lab here at VBRI. “I’ve been working towards this for 15 years,” he says. “The opportunity to have an impact on other people who are training… That’s a feeling you don’t get very often. It was an easy decision to come to Versiti. The leadership and ecosystem of VBRI is a strong, stable place for the lab.”   

Xian’s first impressions of VBRI have been similar. “The people here are collaborative. They are very open and supportive,” she says. “It’s a good place to grow.” Xian grew up in China but came to VBRI from the University of California, San Diego, where she trained as a postdoctoral fellow. Prior to that, she received her PhD in cell biology at the National University of Singapore. Her research explores how mitochondrial stress activates the immune system.