Charlie Evavold

Charlie Evavold grew up in Atlanta, GA. He graduated in May 2013 with a Bachelor of Science with highest honors from Emory University where he majored in both physics and chemistry. After graduation, he transitioned into biology research through an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) fellowship to work in the Q fever group at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). After exposure to microbiology and infection biology, Charlie decided to pursue a PhD in Immunology to study complex signal processing in immune cells. Charlie joined the lab of Jon Kagan to study the tug-of-war between pro-survival signaling pathways and programs of cell death. He is currently investigating a somatic mutation found in the signaling adaptor MyD88 that causes aberrant toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling from endosomes that constitutes a pro-survival signal in certain B cell lymphomas. He is also investigating negative regulators of an inflammatory program of cell death, known as pyroptosis. His dissertation will focus on how pro-survival pathways and programs of cell death intersect to determine cancer and immune cell fate.