Saniya Sabnis completed her BS in Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, during which time she performed research in medicinal chemistry and organic synthesis investigating the methodology of several reactions. She continued her education by earning an MPH in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology from the University of Pittsburgh. While there, she investigated the correlation between single-nucleotide polymorphisms and HIV progression and completed her thesis assessing risk factors for surgical meningitis and ventriculitis in neurosurgery intensive care unit patients. During this time, she became interested in immunology and joined Chester Joyner’s lab in UGA’s Infectious Diseases department. Her PhD work is on the etiology of severe malarial anemia and the role of autoantibodies in Plasmodium models.