People

Postdocs

Niklas Philipp Reich, PhD

Niklas received his B.Sc. in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from University of Applied Sciences Biberach (Germany) and earned a M.Sc. in Biomedicine, testing gene homologues of the innate immune modulator and dsDNA sensor cGAS, from Lancaster University (UK). Also in Lancaster, he worked as Visiting Researcher, investigating the therapeutic potential of the peptide hormones acylated ghrelin and glucagon-like peptide 1 in cellular models of Parkinson’s disease. Niklas soon transitioned to a Ph.D. in Biomedical & Life Sciences at Lancaster University, working in the group of Prof David Allsop. His Ph.D. research included testing of a Tau aggregation inhibitor peptide in self-generated Tauopathy cell models and in vivo. He then joined the ALBORADA Drug Discovery Institute at University of Cambridge (UK) as a postdoc, generating a neuronal Tau assay for drug screening. In October 2024, Niklas joined the Funk lab, investigating the interaction between cerebral virus infections (Kunjin / West Nile) and Tau pathology. Besides research, he worked as project manager in two pharma companies, including GSK Vaccines and Boehringer Ingelheim, and collaborates with the Flow Research Collective, a high performance institution.

Graduate Students

Britanie Blackhurst

Originally from Portland, Oregon, Britanie has called Charlotte, North Carolina home for more than a decade. She earned her B.A. in Biology from UNC Charlotte in 2020, where she conducted research in a virology lab investigating the oncolytic potential of vesicular stomatitis virus against cancer cells. Her work also explored post-translational modifications (PTMs) that occur during oncolytic virotherapy and how these molecular changes influence therapeutic efficacy and clinical outcomes. She is now pursuing her Ph.D. in the Funk Lab, where her research centers on the effects of viral infection on the host genome. Her work examines how neurotropic viruses drive DNA damage and dysregulation of gene editing enzymes such as APOBEC, thereby linking viral infection to neuroinflammation, neurodegeneration, and the potential development of chronic neurological diseases including Alzheimer’s disease.

Trevor Price

Trevor Price (Ph.D. candidate) graduated from UNC Wilmington in 2020 where he earned his B.S. in Exercise Science with honors. During his time at UNC Wilmington, he developed an interest in neuroscience and infectious disease which led him to join the Funk lab in 2022. His dissertation research studies the effects of neurotropic coronavirus infection on tau post-translational modifications and tau pathogenesis.