Catherine (Chi) Weindel, PhD

Catherine “Chi” Weindel is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana. Dr. Weindel’s lab opened in the fall of 2024 with career transitional awards from the Parkinson’s Foundation and the NIAID. Broadly, the research interests of the Weindel lab involve understanding how metabolic pathways shape immune cell populations and dictate their functional responses to external stimuli including pathogens and environmental stressors. Currently, the lab focuses on investigating how different genetic variants associated with Parkinson's disease shape the metabolic environment of antigen presenting cells through dysregulating mitochondrial homeostasis, redox sensing, ER stress and intra-organelle communication. The goal of her work is to identify novel regulatory pathways involved in immune dysregulation at the onset of neurodegenerative disease for early intervention and restoration of balanced immune function.