Read Pukkila-Worley

Read Pukkila-Worley, MD is a Professor of Medicine at UMass Chan Medical School, leading a research laboratory focused on innate immunity and host-pathogen interactions. His work utilizes Caenorhabditis elegans as a discovery platform to identify evolutionarily conserved immune mechanisms and novel anti-infective therapeutics.

• Research Focus: Intestinal immune homeostasis, pathogen sensing, and modulating host immune activity to combat antibiotic resistance.
• Training Environment: Mentored over 5 PhD students since 2020, with a lab culture emphasizing excellence in research and education.
• Scientific Contributions: Pioneered high-throughput drug screening using C. elegans to identify immunostimulatory and anti-virulence compounds.

Research Trends: Recent publications highlight mechanistic studies of TIR-1/SARM1 phase transitions in immune activation, lipid metabolism in pathogen resistance, and nuclear hormone receptor-mediated bacterial recognition.

Scientific Awards:

• Dean's Award for Outstanding Mentoring (2025)
• Rainin Foundation Innovator Award (2017)
• NIH/NIAID R01 grants with exceptional scores (2017, 2022)
• Outstanding Medical Educator Award (2021)

Collaborative Networks: The lab actively collaborates with UMass Chan's institutional training programs and has placed graduates in prestigious roles like Subhash's Assistant Professor position. Funding sources include NIH/NIAID, Charles H. Hood Foundation, and Rainin Foundation.