Anushka Tennakoon and Simon Kumar Shrestha joined the Rijal Lab as PhD students in Fall 2025. Both study host responses to bacterial infection using complementary experimental models. Anushka completed his Master’s in Biological Sciences from the University of Southern Mississippi under the supervision of Dr. Dmitri Mavrodi before joining the lab. Simon completed his Master’s from the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany, followed by a position as Assistant Professor at Kathmandu University, Nepal, before joining the lab.