Dr. Martin Minns is a postdoctoral researcher with Professor Eric Pearlman at the UCI Institute for Immunology. He received his Ph.D. in 2015 from Boston University researching mechanisms of migration and wound healing in the corneal epithelium after sterile injury. In the Pearlman lab, Martin studies the innate immune response to fungal and bacterial infections in the cornea, with a focus on the molecular mechanisms of neutrophils. His current project is to study the unique regulation of the inflammasome, a multi-protein complex that regulates the release of pro-inflammatory IL-1β in neutrophils.
Martin is an enthusiastic member of the UCI Postdoctoral Association (PDA) and enjoys the year-round running weather of southern CA. He recently won 1st place for his poster presentation Unconventional Processing and Function of Neutrophil Gasdermin D in Pyroptosis-Independent Release of IL-1β at the Bench to Bedside Symposium at the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute.