Amariliz Rivera received her B.S from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez campus and her PhD from Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She did her postdoctoral training at MSKCC under the mentorship of Dr. Eric Pamer where she began the abiding theme of her research-achieving a better understanding of how the immune system fights fungal infections. After her training, she moved to Rutgers where she is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and a member of the Center of Immunity and Inflammation. Her work through the years has delineated fungus-specific CD4 T cell responses and monocyte-, monocyte-derived dendritic cell- and neutrophil-mediated innate antifungal immune responses in the context of pulmonary fungal disease. Most recently, her work has uncovered an unexpected of IFN-?s as critical instructors of antifungal neutrophil responses via monocyte-derived type I interferon production in the infected lung. Her career has benefited significantly from the NIH efforts to support diversity training and has been the recipient of multiple awards under the NCI-CRCHD-Continuing Umbrella of Research Experiences (CURE). Her research is currently supported by NIAID and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease award.
- Title
- Associate Professor and Associate Director
- Area of Study/Expertise
- Fungal Infections
- riveraam@njms.rutgers.edu