Thaxton Lab | Lab Members

Jessica Thaxton, PhD, MsCR

Principal Investigator

Dr. Thaxton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Physiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Thaxton received her BA from Amherst College and her PhD from Brown University in Pathobiology & Immunology. Dr. Thaxton trained as a postdoctoral fellow in the field of ER stress and Immunity in the laboratory of Zihai Li, MD, PhD. During her postdoctoral work Dr. Thaxton held a Department of Defense Breast Cancer Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and obtained a Master's in Clinical Research in the study of clinical trials. As an Assistant Professor Dr. Thaxton’s work on tumor-induced ER dysfunction in tumor infiltrating T cells was supported by the NCI Paul Calabresi Clinical Oncology K12 Fellowship. The Thaxton lab has delineated negative roles for the PERK axis in T cell-mediated tumor immunity and continues to study how the solid tumor microenvironment undermines immune-mediated tumor control through dysregulation of ER stress signaling, ER structure, and proteostasis.

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Research Team

Katie Hurst, MPH

Lab Manager

Katie graduated from Clemson University in 2012 with a BA in Biological Sciences with a minor in Psychology. Katie’s interest in cancer biology led her to the Medical University of South Carolina after graduation to pursue a career in molecular cancer research, whereafter she transitioned into cancer immunology research. She holds a special interest in the patient psychological response to cancer and how the immune system can regulate this response and vice versa. Katie serves as lab manager for the Thaxton Lab during which she pursued her Masters in Public Health with a concentration in Health Behavior at the Medical University of South Carolina, where she graduated in 2020.

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Brian Riesenberg, PhD

Postdoctoral Scholar

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Dr. Riesenberg is a postdoctoral scholar and PIRE Fellow in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Medical University of South Carolina. He received his B.S. in Biology from Barton College as a 4-year member the men's varsity soccer program before obtaining his Ph.D. from the Medical University of South Carolina in 2019. Prior to joining the Thaxton Lab, Brian's research took him to the Pelotonia Institute for Immuno-Oncology at The Ohio State University where he focused on T cell exhaustion, development of high-dimensional spectral flow cytometry technology, preclinical in vivo modeling, and technology commercialization. His current work is focused on translating the discoveries made by the research group into novel therapeutics to improve patient outcomes.

Genevieve Clutton, DPhil

Research Associate

Dr. Clutton received her BS from the University of Bath (UK) and her DPhil (PhD) in Immunology from the University of Oxford (UK). She trained as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Nilu Goonetilleke, PhD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, investigating CD8 T cell responses to HIV-1 and other viruses. She obtained independent funding to study T cell responses in the context of Kaposi’s sarcoma and obesity, which fueled her interest in the effects of metabolism on the efficacy of T cell therapies

Annaleigh Powell-Benton, PhD

Postdoctoral Scholar

Dr. Powell-Benton received her PhD from Purdue University in 2024 in the lab of Dr. Jason Hanna. Her dissertation work focused on characterizing tumor-suppressive microRNAs in angiosarcoma, a rare vascular cancer. Dr. Powell-Benton found that overexpression of an individual microRNA had potent tumor-suppressive effects and characterized the network of target genes that this microRNA regulated to elicit these phenotypes. During her time at Purdue, she enjoyed mentoring several undergraduate researchers and being a TA in undergraduate biology courses. Before graduate school, she taught high school biology, which ignited her passion for teaching science. Her postdoctoral work in the Thaxton lab will study how macrophages remodel the tumor microenvironment and influence the efficacy of immunotherapies in solid tumors as a part of the SPIRE (Seeding Postdoctoral Innovators in Research & Education) Postdoctoral Fellowship Program where she will blend research and teaching.

Ellie Hunt
Graduate Student

Ellie graduated from Anderson University in 2019 with a BS in biochemistry. Through her coursework and experience in hospital internships, she gained an interest in immunology and, after a year as a lab technician studying bioenergetics of hepatocellular carcinoma, she enrolled in MUSC’s College of Graduate Studies with an interest in immunotherapy and T cell metabolism. She joined the Thaxton Lab whose interests align with her passion for discovering more efficacious, affordable immunotherapies through modulation of T cell stress responses and metabolism. She is now enrolled in UNC-Chapel Hill’s Biological and Biomedical Sciences PhD program where she continues to study the effects of endoplasmic reticulum stress on T cell metabolism and antitumor efficacy.

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Coral Del Mar Alicea Pauneto

Graduate Student

Coral graduated from the University of Puerto Rico at Humacao in 2015 with a BS in Industrial Chemistry. During her undergraduate year, she did multiple research internships in neuroscience and pharmacology leading her to pursue graduate studies. After graduating, she was accepted into the Pharmacology department at UNC with an interest in neuro-oncology and cancer immunotherapy. At the beginning of her graduate student career, she focused on studying myeloid-directed immunotherapy to treat medulloblastoma. After this experience, she pursued her interest in understanding immunotherapy from a cell biology perspective, where she then joined the Thaxton lab. Coral studies the chronic role of ATF4, a transcription factor important in endoplasmic reticulum stress in tumor-infiltrating T cells, with the ultimate goal of discovering an immunotherapy target.

Andrew Kennedy

Graduate Student

Andrew graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a BS in Biology in 2016, where he studied the effects of electronic cigarettes on lung disease. After graduation he led projects as a research technician studying the interplay between endoplasmic reticulum quality control and autophagy within protein-misfolding diseases. After becoming a PhD candidate in UNC's Cell Biology and Physiology department, Andrew joined the Thaxton lab to apply his interest in endoplasmic reticulum biology for the improvement of cancer immunotherapies.

Sinead Beausang

Research Technician

Sinead graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in 2024 after majoring in Biology and minoring in Chemistry. Sinead officially joined the Thaxton Lab as a Research Technician in May 2024 after working as a volunteer while she completed her undergraduate degree. Her undergraduate education and experiences amplified her passion for research and public health advocacy. Sinead is excited by the Thaxton Lab's focus on translational research to find more effective cancer treatments that enhance quality of life for patients. Sinead is interested in understanding the mechanistic pathways underlying the responses of both immune and tumor cells to the tumor microenvironment to improve immunotherapeutic treatments. In the future, Sinead is interested in pursuing a medical degree with the goal of becoming a physician-scientist to apply research findings to improve clinical outcomes.