Vanesa R. Hyde, B.A.

University of Pittsburgh

Vanesa R. Hyde is a research scientist in the department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington & Jefferson College in 2021 with dual majors in psychology and English. Her early research explored the gut-brain axis model noting both an altered gut microbiome and immune activation in a Drosophila model of human tauopathy (Rydbom et al, 2021). Under the guidance of Or A. Shemesh, her recent work focused on investigating the infectious etiology of neurodegenerative diseases. Most notably, her research explored the presence of Herpes Simplex Virus 1 (HSV-1) in human brain samples, the role of HSV-1 in inducing Alzheimer’s disease pathologies, and the connection between these Alzheimer’s disease pathologies and the innate immune response (Hyde et al, 2025).  Her continued work focuses on investigating the brain “pathobiome” and farther elucidating the infectious mechanisms associated with neurodegenerative diseases. Vanesa will be attending Thomas Jefferson University in pursuit of her Biomedical Sciences (Neuroscience) PhD.