{"id":73,"date":"2019-08-27T11:08:30","date_gmt":"2019-08-27T15:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/kfunk\/?page_id=73"},"modified":"2026-02-13T13:04:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T18:04:50","slug":"people","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/kfunk\/people\/","title":{"rendered":"People"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Kristen Funk, PhD<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kristen grew up in Marietta, Ohio and majored in Zoology at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She earned her PhD at Ohio State University, where she studied Tau pathology in Alzheimer’s disease under the guidance of Dr. Jeff Kuret. Her first postdoctoral position with Dr. Marc Diamond at Washington University in St Louis focused on the role of microglia in immunotherapies targeting Tau pathology. Her second postdoctoral position with Dr. Robyn Klein focused on the importance of microglia and their interactions with other immune cells during West Nile virus encephalitis. She joined the Department of Biological Sciences at UNC Charlotte in 2019. Work in the Funk lab focuses on the impact of acute neuroinflammation caused by viral encephalitis on long-term cognitive sequelae and the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here for Dr. Funk’s recent CV<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Postdocs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Niklas Philipp Reich, PhD<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Technicians<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Autumn Tucker<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Autumn Tucker graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in 2022 where she earned a Neuroscience B.S. with honors and minors in French and Computer Science. During her time in Chapel Hill, she studied neuropharmacology and the persistent effects of alcohol on Alzheimer\u2019s disease pathology under Leon Coleman, MD, PhD. Following a period of clinical work with Northwestern Medicine, she is returning to the UNC system as the Funk lab\u2019s research technician and a prospective MD-PhD applicant.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Graduate Students<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Britanie Blackhurst<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Trevor Price<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.  <\/p>\n<\/div>

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Undergraduate Students<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Geysi Ramirez-Vargas<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geysi is a third-year undergraduate Biology B.S. student currently enrolled in the Early Entry Master\u2019s program in Biology. After completing her bachelor\u2019s degree, she plans to finish her master\u2019s degree and then apply to medical school.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Bree Kurtz<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bree is a fourth-year undergraduate in the Biology Honors Program pursuing a B.S. in Biology as well as a B.S. in Psychology. After graduating she plans to obtain a Ph.D. in neuroscience and infectious diseases.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Swastika Dey<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swastika is a third-year undergraduate student at University of North Carolina at Charlotte, pursuing a B.S. in Biology with a minor in Psychology. She plans to attend medical school after completing her bachelor\u2019s degree, with the goal of integrating her interests in biology and mental health into a career in healthcare.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Lab Alumni and their current\/last known position<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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  • Katie Reagin (Postdoc, 2024) – Assistant Professor at University of Central Florida<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Sarah Lotz (M.S., 2022) – Project Manager in Medical Imaging <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Rae Lee (M.S., 2023) – Lab Technician at Duke University<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Olivia Pike (B.S. with Honors, 2021) – Patent Attorney<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Morgan Russ (B.S. with Honors, 2022) – Clinical Research Associate<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Kristen Minehart (B.S. with Honors, 2023) – Research Associate at Atrium Health<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Erik Sopiqoti (B.S. with Honors, 2025) – Medical Student at Medical College of Wisconsin<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Luke Wiliams (B.S. with Honors, 2025) – Medical Student at Marshall University<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Anna D’Amour (B.S., 2021) – Associate Scientist <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Ashton McKane (B.S., 2022) – Sales Representative <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Loren Cocciolone (B.S., 2023) – Ph.D. student at UNC Charlotte<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Tonson Pham (B.S., 2023) – Medical Student at University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Michael Gonzalez (B.S., 2024)- Medical Student at Wake Forest University<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Katie Hale (B.S., 2024) – Research Technician at RTI International<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Priyanka Amalean (B.S., 2025) – Certified Nursing Assistant<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Aayush Bhatt – Undergraduate student at UNC Charlotte<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3105,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-73","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/kfunk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/kfunk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/kfunk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/kfunk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/kfunk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":63,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/kfunk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":377,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/kfunk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/73\/revisions\/377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/kfunk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}