Past Members

Yusuke Miyashita, MD, PhD

Dr. Miyashita received his M.D. degree from Kumamoto University in 2011 and become a licensed pediatrician in the Japanese Medical Association in 2016. He completed his Ph.D. degree from Kumamoto University in 2022. His previous research is on the regulatory mechanism of IL-17RA signaling and identifying microRNAs related with vaccine response. He investigated tissue resident memory T cells and synovial fibroblast interactions in arthritis. Yusuke left the Chang lab to continue his career in academic pediatric rheumatology in Japan.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Toyoda M, Tan TS, Motozono C, Barabona G, Yonekawa A, Shimono N, Minami R, Nagasaki Y, Miyashita Y, Oshiumi H, Nakamura K, Matsushita S, Kuwata T, Ueno T. Evaluation of Neutralizing Activity against Omicron Subvariants in BA.5 Breakthrough Infection and Three-Dose Vaccination Using a Novel Chemiluminescence-Based, Virus-Mediated Cytopathic Assay. Microbiol. Spectr., 2023 Aug 17:11(4):e0066023

Motozono C, Toyoda M, Tan T, Hamana H, Goto Y, Aritsu Y, Miyashita Y, Oshiumi H, Nakamura K, Okada S, Udaka K, Kitamatsu M, Kishi H, and Ueno T. The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 spike G446S mutation potentiates antiviral T cell recognition. Nat. Commun., 2022 Sep 21:13(1):5440

Miyashita Y, Yoshida T, Takagi Y, Tsukamoto H, Takashima K, Kouwaki T, Makino K, Fukushima S, Nakamura K, Oshiumi H. Circulating extracellular vesicle microRNAs associated with adverse reactions, proinflammatory cytokine, and antibody production after COVID-19 vaccination. npj Vaccine, 2022 Feb 8;7(1):16

Miyashita Y, Kouwaki T, Tsukamoto H, Okamoto M, Nakamura K, Oshiumi H. TICAM-1/TRIF associates with Act1 and suppresses IL-17 receptor-mediated inflammatory responses, Life Sci Alliance, 2021 Nov 24;5(2):e202101181

Miyashita Y, Ishikawa K, Fukushima Y, Kouwaki T, Nakamura K, Oshiumi H. Immune-regulatory microRNA Expression Levels Within Circulating Extracellular Vesicles Correspond with the Appearance of Local Symptoms After Seasonal Flu Vaccination. PLos One, 2019 Jul 9;14(7):e0219510

Publications

  • Asia Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology - American College of Rheumatology Convergence Exchange Program 2025

  • JSPS Overseas Research Fellowships, awarded by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science 2023-2025

  • Kumamoto University Hospital Young Researcher Activation Project 2022

Awards

Maryrose Hahn, BS

Maryrose is currently a second-year medical student at Loyola Stritch School of Medicine. She was previously a research assistant in the Chang Lab from 2022-2024 where she studied the role of IL-15 in the development of tissue resident memory T cells in the synovium and the cytokine profile within ocular fluid of patients with autoimmune uveitis. She returned to the Chang Lab in 2025 for a research preceptorship to investigate the immune profile of uveitic eyes through mouse models of experimental autoimmune uveitis.  

Research Intern

Lam KP, Harris C, Taylor ML, Fernandez-Salinas D, Cui J, Issac B, Sun L, Raman I, Zhu C, Hahn M, Ashoor M, Bakhsh A, Bryant MC, Case S, Chandler M, Chang JC, Cohen E, Dedeoglu F, Halyabar O, Hausmann JS, Hazen M, Ibanez D, Kim L, Lo J, Lo MS, Meidan E, Perron M, Powers H, Son MB, Wobma H, Janssen E, Lee PY, Nigrovic PA, Ohlms L, Shearer AE, Chang MH, Gutierrez-Arcelus M, Henderson LA. Sex Differences in B Cells from the Joints of Children with Oligoarticular Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2025 Mar 17. doi: 10.1002/art.43157. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40098343.

Publications

Awards

  • Rheumatology Research Foundation Medical and Graduate Student Preceptorship 2025

  • Rheumatology Research Foundation Student and Resident Research Award 2024

  • Joint Biology Consortium Microgrant Award 2023

  • Rheumatology Research Foundation Choose Rheumatology Scholarship 2023

Madison Mangin, BS

Madison graduated from Northeastern University in 2024 with a Bachelor’s degree in Health Science. She previously worked at Lumos Diagnostics optimizing flow tests to differentiate bacteria from viral infections. She joined the Chang Lab in 2022 as a student intern studying the cross-talk between resident memory T cells and synovial fibroblasts. Madison left the Chang lab in 2025 to pursue medical school at VCU School of Medicine.

Research Assistant

Awards

  • Rheumatology Research Foundation Choose Rheumatology Scholarship 2023

Spoorthi Balu, BA

Spoorthi graduated from Barnard College in 2021 with a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and a minor in Art History. While at Barnard, she completed an honors thesis studying the interaction of proteins implicated in Alzheimer’s disease. She started working with Dr. Chang as a student in 2018 to identify tissue resident memory T cells in synovium samples from patients with rheumatoid arthritis using multispectral microscopy techniques. She then worked on characterizing immune cells in the ocular fluid of patients with autoimmune uveitis. Spoorthi left the Chang lab in 2023 to pursue medical school at UMass T.H. Chan School of Medicine.

Research Assistant

Chang MH*, Levescot A*, Nelson-Maney N, Blaustein RB, Winden KD, Morris A, Wactor A, Balu S, Grieshaber-Bouyer R, Wei K, Henderson LA, Iwakura Y, Clark RA, Rao DA, Fuhlbrigge RC, Nigrovic PA. Arthritis Flares Mediated by Tissue Resident Memory T Cells in the Joint. Cell Rep. 2021 Oct 26;37(4):109902. PMID 34706228.

Publications

Awards

  • Joint Biology Consortium Microgrant Award 2023

Lillie Sutton

Lillie is a senior at Wake Forest University, pursuing her Bachelor's of Science in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and minoring in Neuroscience. Her previous research at Wake Forest's School of Medicine focused on macrophage activation in adipose tissues of rodent models of obesity. She joined the Chang lab to study treatment approaches to refractory noninfectious uveitis.

Summer Intern

  • Guy T. Carswell Scholar

  • Leadership and Character Scholar

Awards