The broader research focus of the Badovinac lab is to understand the mechanisms that govern the CD4 and CD8 T cell responses to infection and immunization. The emphasis is on exploring the pathways that are involved in antigen specific T cell homeostasis in vivo, and understanding how the manipulation of these pathways can be used to facilitate the generation and maintenance of productive memory T cell responses in health and disease, using mouse model systems and human samples.

My research here is specifically geared towards understanding CD4 T cell mediated immune regulation during total body irradiation and sepsis induced Immune dysfunction using mouse models.

Publications

Mix MR, Sievers CM, Hassert MA, Kannan SK, Pewe LL, Huang SC, He R, Fain CE, Heidarian M, Hancox LS, Arumugam SA, Beltz TG, Jin F, Johnson AJ, Carter CS, Butler N, Salem AK, Badovinac VP, Harty JT. Peripheral vaccination-induced brain-resident memory CD8+ T cells provide durable protection against intracranial malignancy. J Clin Invest (2026) [In-Press]

Mix MR, Kreitlow BL, Berton RR, Xu J, Fain CE, van de Wall S, Pewe LL, Hancox LS, Hassert MA, Kannan SK, Arumugam SA, Sievers CM, Buchanan GF, Griffith TS, Badovinac VP, Harty JT. Physiological microbial exposure normalizes memory T cell surveillance of the brain and modifies host seizure outcomes. Nat Immunol. 2025 Jul;26(7):1087-1098. doi: 10.1038/s41590-025-02174-y. Epub 2025 Jun 13. PMID: 40514419; PMCID: PMC12213194.

Escue EA, Heidarian M, Kannan SK, Rao M, Arumugam S, Harty JT, Badovinac VP. The ability of memory CD8 T cell subsets to numerically and functionally recover following whole-body irradiation is influenced by their history of cognate antigen exposures. J Immunol. (2025) vkaf194. PMID: 40854546.

Heidarian M, Kannan SK, Swanson W, Griffith TS, Harty JT, Badovinac VP. Delineating the short- and long-term impact of ionizing radiation on antigen-inexperienced CD8+ T cell subsets. JCI Insight (2025) e194201. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.194201. PMID: 40762983

Mix MR, Berton RR, Kreitlow BL, Xu J, Van de Wall S, Epping LL, Hancox LS, Fain CE, Hassert MA, Kannan SK, Arumugam SA, Sievers CM, Buchanan GF, Griffith TS, Badovinac VP, Harty JT. Physiologic microbial exposure normalizes memory T cell surveillance of the brain and modifies host seizure outcomes. Nat Immunol. (2025) 26(7):1087-1098. doi: 10.1038/s41590-025-02174-y. PMID: 40514419

Roger R Berton*, Mohammad Heidarian*, Shravan Kumar Kannan*, Manan Shah, Noah S Butler, John T Harty, Vladimir P Badovinac, Accurate enumeration of pathogen-specific and virtual memory CD8 T cells after infection, The Journal of Immunology, 2025;, vkaf007, https://doi.org/10.1093/jimmun/vkaf007

C.Y. Kim, S.K. Kannan, V.P. Badovinac & T.S. Griffith (2024). Protocol for inducing monomicrobial sepsis in mice with uropathogenic E. coli. STAR Protocols, 5(3), 103206. (doi: 10.1016/j.xpro.2024.103206)

S.K. Kannan, C.Y. Kim, M. Heidarian, R.R. Berton, I.J. Jensen, T.S. Griffith, & V.P. Badovinac (2024). Mouse models of sepsis. Current Protocols, 4(3), e997. (doi: 10.1002/cpz1.997) PMID: 38439603

M. Heidarian, I.J. Jensen, S.K. Kannan, L.L. Pewe, M. Hassert, S.R. Park, H.H. Xue, J.T. Harty, V.P. Badovinac (2023) Sublethal whole-body irradiation induces permanent loss and dysfunction in pathogen-specific circulating memory CD8 T cell populations. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 120(27), e2302785120. (doi:10.1073/pnas.2302785120)

Note: * indicates co-first author

Honors and Awards

Ballard & Seashore Dissertation Fellowship (Spring 2026)
Graduate College Post-Comprehensive Exam Research Fellowship (2023)
AAI Young Investigator Award at the Autumn Immunology Conference (2023)