Aaron Whiteley

  • (he/him)
  • Assistant Professor
  • Principal Investigator
  • Boettcher Investigator
  • DEPARTMENT OF BIOCHEMISTRY
Aaron Whiteley 2022
Address

Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building (JSCBB)
Office B221, Lab B255

  B.S. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of California Davis, 2004-2008

  Ph.D. Infectious Diseases and Immunity, Advisor: Dr. Daniel Portnoy, University of California Berkeley, 2010-2016

  Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellowship in Microbiology, Advisors: Dr. John Mekalanos and Dr. Philip Kranzusch, Harvard Medical School, 2016-2019

  @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social

Bio

Dr. Aaron Whiteley is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Colorado Boulder. His laboratory focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms and evolution of immune signaling pathways. Dr. Whiteley’s research contributions include tracing the origins of proteins from the human innate immune system to bacteria, where they evolved for defense against phages. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley in Dr. Daniel A. Portnoy’s lab as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, he trained as a Jane Coffin Childs Fund Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School in the labs of Dr. John J. Mekalanos and Dr. Philip J. Kranzusch, and started his independent lab in January 2020. Dr. Whiteley is a recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, the Boettcher Foundation Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Award, the ASM Award for Early Career Basic Research, was named a Pew Biomedical Scholar, and received the Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease (PATH) Award from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. In 2026, Dr. Whiteley was recognized with the Exceptional Graduate Faculty Mentor Award from the University of Colorado Graduate School.

Awards and Honors

  • 2026 Exceptional Graduate Faculty Mentor Award – University of Colorado Boulder
  • 2024 Burroughs Wellcome Fund PATH Award – Burroughs Wellcome Fund
  • 2023 ASM Award for Early Career Basic Research – American Society for Microbiology
  • 2023 Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences Award – Pew Charitable Trusts
  • 2023 Mentor Award Honorable Mention – Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, CU Boulder
  • 2022 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (DP2) – National Institutes of Health (DP2AT012346)
  • 2022 Boettcher Investigator and Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awardee – Boettcher Foundation
  • 2018 Outstanding Postdoctoral Fellow Award – Microbiology & Immunobiology, Harvard Medical School
  • 2017 Postdoctoral Fellowship – Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research
  • 2015 Richard and Mary Finkelstein Travel Grant and Young Investigator Oral Presentation – American Society for Microbiology
  • 2012 Graduate Research Fellowship Award – National Science Foundation