Debresha A. Shelton

Hometown: Memphis, TN

Undergraduate Institution: Fisk University

Current Stage and Institution: PhD Student at Emory University

Track: Genetics and Molecular Biology

Research: My long-term research interests involve understanding the fundamental epigenetic and molecular underpinnings that control the homeostatic equilibrium mediating tissue responses under stress and how these programmed molecular signaling paradigms are subverted to contribute to immunopathogenesis during disease. For my graduate training at Emory University, I have focused my efforts to the fields of genetics and immunology to study how changes in retinal pigmented epithelium cell morphology and signaling incrementally modulate the reactivity of different subclasses of microglia during context-dependent damage in the eye, under Dr. John Nickerson.