Three Husker students under the mentorship of Luwen Zhang, a leading University of Nebraska–Lincoln virologist, have achieved a rare feat for undergraduates.
Vanessa Hubing, a junior biological sciences major from Castle Pine, Colorado; Avery Marquis, a senior pre-veterinary medicine student from Omaha; and Chanasei Ziemann, a recent biological sciences graduate from Hickman, Nebraska; are first authors of two recently published scientific research articles that describe significant findings about how human immune systems evolved.
“Undergraduates are often participants in research as part of a larger group — but first authorship is very rare,” Zhang said. “The three of them made a major contribution to this work.”
All three students worked in Zhang’s laboratory through the university's Undergraduate Creative Activities and Research Experience program, which provides stipends for students to gain research experience while they pursue their bachelor’s degree.
Both studies have to do with how interferon regulatory factors (IRFs) orchestrate innate immune system and inflammatory responses. In one article, published last month in the Journal of Medical Virology, the three young scientists traced how vertebrate organisms developed more sophisticated immune regulation when they evolved to acquire jaws.
In a previous article, published in August, also in the Journal of Medical Virology, the team described how a “pseudogene” — a gene that doesn’t make a protein — may have hitchhiked into the DNA of higher primates via a retrovirus 60 million years ago. They hypothesize that this DNA fragment gave the human ancestors an edge against certain germs — and may continue to play a role in fine-tuning human immune response.
Coached by Zhang, a professor of biological sciences, and his fellow professor Etsuko Moriyama, who specializes in bioinformatics, the student researchers used cutting-edge computer technology to analyze genetic sequences and build phylogenetic trees for organisms including lampreys, sharks, ray-finned fish, birds and humans.
Zhang selected the research topic, and Moriyama helped train the students to do the analysis.
“They have never done this kind of computational analysis before,” she said. “They handled it very well. We guided them how to do it, and they did the work. They also did a very good job for time management.”
Hubing and Marquis said mastering the bioinformatics presented a big learning curve. It was not something either of them had experienced before.
“As the process is happening, you don’t realize what all the work amounts to — but when you see the article, it makes you feel really accomplished,” Marquis said. “That really motivates me to pursue a career in science, because I see what all the work can do.”
In addition to shedding light on humanity’s ancient defenses against disease, Zhang said his students’ work offers important hints about how to tackle immune-related diseases. He and Moriyama are actively pursuing grant support to continue the line of research.
“This work is very important for all of the fields of immunity, and it drew a lot of attention in the field,” he said. “One reason is how it relates to chronic human autoimmune diseases.”
IRF5, one of a family of nine interferon transcription factors, figured prominently in both studies. It provides a general pathway for immune response to many viruses, including COVID-19 — but overactivation of IRF5 also has been linked to illnesses such as systemic lupus erythematosus, or lupus for short.
An important facet of Zhang’s research is understanding how the immune system balances itself. The first to discover IRF7, another factor in the IRF gene family and critical to viral transformation and innate immunity, he uses a blend of virology, molecular and cellular biology, immunology and pathology to understand virus-host interactions.
All three students said they found their way to Zhang’s laboratory because of their interest in medicine or biomedical research.
“I’d been interested in doing research coming into college, but I’m a first-generation student, so I didn’t really know how to get involved in that,” said Ziemann, who credited Marianna Burks, an assistant professor of practice who leads a STEM recruitment project in the School of Biological Sciences, for connecting her with Zhang.
Ziemann spent two years working in Zhang’s laboratory before she completed her bachelor's degree in May 2024. She graduated with distinction, basing her Honors thesis on her work in Zhang’s laboratory. Marquis and Hubing also are submitting their work in Zhang’s laboratory to graduate with distinction.
Ziemann, who plans to attend graduate school, continues to work part-time in Zhang’s lab and as a project coordinator for Burks while she considers career paths in biomedical research or science education.
Marquis, who plans to complete her bachelor’s degree in biological sciences and Spanish in May, has worked in Zhang’s laboratory for more than two years. She also works at a Lincoln veterinary clinic. She said she has always wanted a career in science and recently came to realize that she is most interested in animal health care.
Hubing, a biological sciences major with minors in Spanish and psychology, plans to apply to a physician assistant program and will complete her bachelor’s degree next year. She said she has worked in health care since she was 16, first as a certified nursing assistant and later as a clinical assistant at an outpatient clinic for allergies, asthma and immunology in her home state of Colorado.
“This project has validated my desire to pursue a career in medicine,” she said. “I can see how this information could help patients someday. Having this baseline understanding of the mechanisms of disease is critical to good health care.”
Hubing said she and her teammates enjoyed working with Zhang so much that all three enrolled in his capstone course on cancer biology. Marquis and Ziemann have completed the course, while Hubing is taking it this semester.
One of the most inspiring things about the experience is realizing that important research happens at Nebraska, Ziemann said.
“Everyone out there is thinking you need to go to an Ivy League school for this,” she said. “It’s cool that this level of research is done in Nebraska.”
