Sophia Kenney
Graduate Student
Sophia is a graduate student in the Molecular, Cellular and Integrative
Biosciences Ph.D. Program. She has extensive background with microbiology
and immunology laboratory related skills due to her experience in her
undergraduate program. In her program at Penn State, she has an
immunology and infectious disease concentration and will minor in
Bioinformatics and Genomics.
Sophia supports lab research activities through a combination of wet
and dry lab work. In the lab, she leads all Salmonella Dublin research
projects in addition to helping her peers with their projects. Her
computational work spans comparative genomics, metagenomics-based
antimicrobial resistance and taxonomic analyses, and 16S microbiome
analysis wherein she leads her own projects while supporting the projects of
her peers and visiting scholars.
“As a member of the Ganda Lab, I am immersed in opportunities to develop as a researcher, equipping me with the multidisciplinary skills necessary to address challenges facing human and animal health.”
Publications
Re-Investigating the Coughing Rat Model of Pertussis to Understand Bordetella Pertussis Pathogenesis
Experimental Stroke Induces Chronic Gut Dysbiosis and Neuroinflammation in Male Mice
BioRxiv, Brichacek, A., Nwafor, D., Benkovic, S., Chakraborty, S., Kenney, S., Mace, M., Jun, S., Gambill, C., Wang, W., Hu, H., Ren, X., Povroznik, J., Engler-Chiurazzi, E., Primerano, D., Devir, J., Percifield, R., Infante, A., Franko, J., Schafer, R., Gemoets, D., and Brown, C., 2020
Abstract TP117: Experimental Stroke Induces Chronic Gut Dysbiosis in Male C57BL/6J Mice
Stroke, Brichacek, A., Gambill, C., Kenney, S., Nwafor, D., Hu, H., Ren, X., Benkovic, S., and Brown, C., 2019.
Siddique, A., Ullah, N., Ali, A., Patel, A., Moore, T., Kenney, S. M., Ganda, E., & Rahman, A.
(2022). Draft genome sequences of 25 Salmonella enterica serovar Agona strains isolated
from poultry and associated food products harbouring multiple antibiotic resistance genes.
Journal of Global Antimicrobial Resistance, 29, 131-135. DOI: 10.1016/j.jgar.2022.02.013,
ISBN/ISSN: 2213-7165
Hall, J.M., Kang, J, Kenney, S.M., Wong, T.Y., Bitzer, G.J., Kelley, C.O., Kisamore, C.A.,Boehm,
D.T., Dejong, M.A., Wolf, M.A., Sen-Kilic, E, Horspool, A.M., Bevere, J.R, Barbier, M,
Damron, F.H. (2022) Re-investigating the coughing rat model of pertussis to understand
Bordetella pertussis pathogenesis. Infection and Immunity. 89(12). DOI: 10.1128/iai.00304-
21
Fonseca, A., Kenney, S., Van Syoc, E., Bierly, S., Dini-Andreote, F., Silverman, J., Boney, J.,
Ganda, E. Investigating antibiotic free feed additives for growth promotion in poultry: effects
on performance and microbiota. Poultry Science. 103(5). DOI: 10.1016/j.psj.2024.103604
Kenney, S.M.; Ganda, E. Preventions and Management of Salmonella Dublin on Dairies. Penn
State Extension. July 2022. https://extension.psu.edu/prevention-and-management-of-
salmonella-dublin-on-dairies