PhD Graduate Mahina Mitul Joins the Vaccine Research Center

Mahina Mitul talks about finding her path to becoming a postdoc at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, including the tweet that led her from Bangladesh to UC Irvine.

“I am lucky that I was born into an open-minded family,” says Mahina Mitul, PhD, who grew up in Rangpur, a northern city in Bangladesh. Her father was a banker, and her mother was a schoolteacher, each from very different backgrounds. “I grew up in a multicultural, multireligious environment, and my parents gave both me and my younger brother enough independence to choose our own life and pathways.”

For Mitul, that meant forging her own path as the first in her family to go abroad for higher education and the first to earn a PhD.

Now, after completing her PhD in human immunology at the UC Irvine School of Medicine, Mitul is working as a postdoc at the Vaccine Research Center of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). She is excited to continue her research into intrahost virus diversity during infection.

Falling in Love with DNA and Immunology

“As a child, my goals changed a lot. At one point, I wanted to be a fashion designer,” recalls Mitul. “Most of my older cousins are engineers or physicians, but by seventh or eighth grade, I knew I didn’t want to follow in their footsteps.”

Instead, she charted her own course. “I was always curious about what causes disease and how we find treatments for it,” says Mitul, who enjoyed math, biology and chemistry. “The pathway toward focusing on molecular biology happened during 12th grade, when a chapter about organic chemistry sparked my interest in DNA.”

She went on to earn her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. An introductory immunology course during her second year of college solidified her future career goals. “I fell in love with the complexity and diversity of immunology and how the system responds differently to internal and external stimuli.”

The Tweet that Led to UC Irvine

“I had little guidance about the different career trajectories that I could follow,” says Mitul, “and I didn’t have any idea that right after earning my bachelor’s, I could get myself admitted into a PhD track program.”

Yet even after earning her master’s degree, Mitul felt “timid” about applying to a PhD program. “I felt like I needed additional lab experience,” she explains. That led her to a highly competitive master’s degree program on infection and immunity at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands, where she was one of only three international students to receive a scholarship.

After graduating in 2017, she wanted to earn her doctoral degree in the U.S. “So, for fall 2018, I applied to 13 universities, mostly on the East Coast,” says Mitul.

She didn’t receive a single acceptance. “I was heartbroken and hopeless.”

The following year, Mitul applied to universities in Germany, Canada and Australia. After receiving several scholarship offers, she was weighing her options when a social media post on Twitter (now known as X) referencing Lisa Wagar, PhD, an assistant professor of physiology and biophysics at UC Irvine, caught her attention.

“I saw a tweet from one of my former co-advisors from the Netherlands about a research opportunity from Dr. Wagar,” says Mitul, who decided to reach out and send her CV.

“She interviewed me, and we just clicked, so I applied,” says Mitul. “I could not believe that 13 applications did not end up in a single acceptance, but then one tweet led me to UCI, and I’m so grateful!”

The Wagar Lab’s “OG” Crew

Mitul was a part of the original crew — with Jenna Kastenschmidt, PhD, and Andrew Sorn — that started up the new Wagar Lab and its focus on how human immune responses to infectious diseases and vaccines are initiated, regulated and resolved in tissues.

“2020 was a weird year,” says Mitul, referring to the COVID-19 global pandemic. “Initially, the four of us would be sitting in four different locations, having lab meetings online. For almost two years, I was living alone in my apartment and barely knew my peers, so it was very isolating.”

Yet being part of a small team in a new lab provided Mitul with opportunities to hone her expertise. “I received direct training from Dr. Wagar on how to process the lymphoid tissues, prepare the organoids, set up experiments and design complex flow panels, and she encouraged me to learn coding,” says Mitul. “It was a very positive and supportive environment that gave me the time and confidence to learn new skills and adapt.”

Developing Better Vaccines

Mitul was the first graduate student to join the lab’s effort to develop a tonsil organoid as a new model for mimicking what happens during a primary Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) infection.

“The tonsil organoid platform is a fantastic tool for learning the complexities of human immunology,” says Mitul, whose dissertation explored how virus and host factors shape tissue immunity.

“I looked at factors that can modulate tissue immunity, and why sampling blood doesn’t always represent what is happening inside tissue,” she says. “This can vary depending on the age and biological sex of the participants, so I studied how we can use that information to design an age- and sex-specific vaccine.”

Mitul focused in particular on EBV and how it manipulates immune cells during primary infection. “That virus is tricky, hiding in over 95% of us, and depending on the genetic and environmental background, it can cause different diseases,” says Mitul. “This part of my dissertation is innovative in that we have this model that can mimic initial events of EBV infection.”

She hopes others build off this work. “The project can grow in different directions to help us understand why only a small percentage of the EBV-infected individuals will develop carcinoma or autoimmunity,” says Mitul.

Now, as a postdoc working under the supervision of Eli Boritz, MD, PhD, Mitul is studying the intrahost diversity of the influenza virus.

“Knowledge gathered from this project should ultimately help us to understand virus diversity and evolution during infection,” says Mitul, “informing future influenza vaccine design.”

Motherhood, Mental Health & Networking

When she’s not working, Mitul’s hobbies revolve around her 3 1/2-year-old son. “I try to enjoy as much time as I can with my little one,” she says, describing herself as an “outdoorsy” mom who likes to explore new places and nearby parks. “I find joy in that.”

And while she admits that balancing motherhood and research isn’t always easy — she has felt guilty both as a mom and an employee — it is possible with a strong support system. “It’s the best thing that ever happened to me, but I did not plan for a baby during my PhD, so that was a challenging journey,” she says. “I had help from my friends and support from Dr. Wagar, and I had a mental health counselor.”

Finding the right balance means prioritizing her mental health. “Mental peace is one of the most important things, and the smartest way to get there is to ask for help,” she says.

That advice to seek support from others also goes for anyone hoping to follow in Mitul’s footsteps — without relying on the luck of a perfectly timed social media post.

“Looking back, I wish that I had more direction and guidance, but I was reluctant to approach others and grow my network,” she says, stressing the importance of reaching beyond your comfort zone, which eventually helped her land exactly where she wants to be.

“As a child, I didn’t aim to be a scientist, but I still somehow found my way here!”

— Shani Murray