Biography

Dr. Hannah Jaeger earned her undergraduate degree in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from the University of Idaho in 2018 and her Ph.D. from Oregon Health & Science University in 2025. 

As an undergraduate researcher, she worked on projects related to maternal–fetal health, including human milk oligosaccharide gene variation across populations, chromosomal recombination events associated with infertility, and congenital infection with Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV). Her undergraduate fellowship project examined how HCMV disrupts endothelial barriers to promote viral dissemination across the placenta and contribute to congenital birth defects. She was later awarded a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, where she studied immunology and viral oncology. Working with Robert Yarchoan, she investigated how the immunomodulatory drug Pomalidomide enhances expression of immune surface markers in cell lines derived from Epstein–Barr virus associated tumors. This work contributed to several publications and provided preclinical rationale for an ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial.

Dr. Jaeger later joined the M.D./Ph.D. program at Oregon Health & Science University, completing her doctoral research at the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute under the mentorship of Daniel Streblow. Her doctoral work defined mechanisms of maternal–fetal pathogenesis using nonhuman primate models of emerging arboviral infection. Her dissertation evaluated a virus-like particle Zika vaccine in pregnant rhesus macaques challenged with the highly pathogenic ZIKV strain, demonstrating reduced maternal viremia, decreased placental infection, and improved fetal survival in a stringent early-pregnancy loss model. This work also identified mechanisms contributing to ZIKV-induced early pregnancy loss. In parallel, she developed and characterized translational nonhuman primate models of O’nyong-nyong and Oropouche virus infection that recapitulate key features of human disease and provide platforms for future studies of arboviral pathogenesis and vaccine development.

She has now returned to clinical training and plans to pursue residency in obstetrics and gynecology. Through work with the OHSU global health programs in Thailand and collaborations in Brazil, she is interested in studying emerging infectious diseases in regions where these pathogens have the greatest impact. Her long-term goal is to lead a translational research program focused on viral pathogenesis, congenital infections, and maternal–fetal immunity while advancing global women’s health.

Outside of training, Hannah enjoys scuba diving, mountaineering, cooking, and spending time with her partner and their dogs.

Selected publications

Jaeger, HK; Smith, J.L.; Parkins, C.J.; Haese, N.N.; Kreklywich, C.N.; Denton, M.; Labriola, C.S.; Axthelm, M.K.; Barber-Axthelm, A.; Chun, K.; et al. Comparative Analysis of Two Zika Virus Isolates in a Rhesus Macaque Pregnancy Model. Viruses 2025, 17, 762. 

Li A, Coffey LL, Mohr EL, Raper J, Chahroudi A, Ausderau KK, Aliota MT, Friedrich TC, Mitzey AM, Koenig MR, Golos TG, Jaeger HK, Roberts VHJ, Lo JO, Smith JL, Hirsch AJ, Streblow DN, Newman CM, O'Connor DH, Lackritz EM, Van Rompay KKA, Adams Waldorf KM; Zika Expert Workgroup. Role of non-human primate models in accelerating research and developing countermeasures against Zika virus infection. Lancet Microbe. 2025 Feb 

Jaeger HK*, Davis DA*, Nair A, Shrestha P, Stream A, Yaparla A, Yarchoan R. Mechanism and therapeutic implications of pomalidomide-induced immune surface marker upregulation in EBV-positive lymphomas. Sci Rep. 2023 Jul

Shrestha P, Davis DA, Jaeger HK, Stream A,  Aisabor AI, Yarchoan R. Pomalidomide restores immune recognition of primary effusion lymphoma through upregulation of ICAM-1 and B7-2. PLOS Pathogens Jan 2021

Davis DA, Bulut H, Shrestha P, Yaparla A, Jaeger HK, Hattori SI, Wingfield P, Mitsuya H, Yarchoan R. Regulation of the Dimerization and Activity of SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease through Reversible Glutathionylation of Cysteine 300 MBio 2021

Brown RM, Rana PSJB, Jaeger HK, O’Dowd JM, Balemba OB, Fortunato EA. 2019. Human cytomegalovirus compromises development of cerebral organoids. J Virol 2019

Kuan MI,  Jaeger HK, Balemba OB, O'Dowd JM, Duricka D, Hannemann H, Marx E, Teissier N, Gabrielli L, Bonasoni MP, Keithley EM, Fortunato EA. Human Cytomegalovirus Interactions with the Basement Membrane Protein Nidogen 1 J Virol Jan 2021