Puchong Thirawatananond, PhD
MD/PhD

Puchong Thirawatananond MD/PhD Candidate Puchong joined the Brusko lab in 2019 as an MD/PhD trainee.  He attended Johns Hopkins University with a major in Molecular and Cellular Biology. Before starting medical school, he worked as a technician for Sandra B. Gabelli to solve 3D protein structures through X-ray crystallography. One of his structures, an HLA presenting a neoantigen peptide, inspired him to pursue research in immunology and its modulation through immunotherapy.

In 2023, Puchong received his PhD working on a Treg-conditional knockout of Cd226 using the NOD mouse model for T1D. He has since returned to the UF College of Medicine to finish his last two years of medical school.

 

Awards

NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral MD/PhD Fellowship (F30) “Generation of Islet Specific T Follicular Regulatory Like Cells for Autologous Cell Therapy of Type 1 Diabetes.” 2021.

Publications

Thirawatananond P, Brown ME, Sachs LK, Arnoletti JM, Yeh WI, Posgai AL, Shapiro MR, Chen YG, Brusko TM. (2023). Deletion of CD226 in Foxp3+ T cells Reduces Diabetes Incidence in Non-Obese Diabetic Mice by Improving Regulatory T Cell Stability and Function. Diabetes. doi: 10.1101/2022.06.02.494443, 

Japp AS, Meng W, Rosenfeld AM, Perry DJ, Thirawatananond P, Bacher RL, Liu C, Gardner JS; HPAP Consortium, Atkinson MA, Kaestner KH, Brusko TM, Naji A, Luning Prak ET, Betts MR. TCR+/BCR+ dual-expressing cells and their associated public BCR clonotype are not enriched in type 1 diabetes. Cell. 2021 Feb 4;184(3):827-839.e14. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.11.035. PMID: 33545036; PMCID: PMC8016147.

Shapiro MR, Thirawatananond P, Peters L, Sharp RC, Ogundare S, Posgai AL, Perry DJ, Brusko TM. De-coding genetic risk variants in type 1 diabetes. Immunol Cell Biol. 2021 Jan 22. doi: 10.1111/imcb.12438. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33483996.

Thirawatananond P, McPherson RL, Malhi J, Nathan S, Lambrecht MJ, Brichacek M, Hergenrother PJ, Leung AKL, Gabelli SB. Structural analyses of NudT16-ADP-ribose complexes direct rational design of mutants with improved processing of poly(ADP-ribosyl)ated proteins. Sci Rep. 2019 Apr 11;9(1):5940. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-39491-w. PMID: 30976021; PMCID: PMC6459841.


Contact

Lab: (352) 273-9300

Email: Puchong@ufl.edu