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Lauren E. Gentles

Graduate Student
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Seattle, WA, United States

I attended the University of Arkansas in 2010 to pursue a Bachelor of Science degree in biology. There, I sought out research opportunities in the area of infectious disease. I joined a lab studying novel vaccine approaches for preventing an important industrial poultry pathogen. Subsequently, I became involved in the study of an emerging human pathogen, chikungunya virus, through my participation in the University of Iowa’s Research Experience for Undergraduates program during the summers of 2012 and 2013. There, I explored the interactions between chikungunya virus and the host innate immune factor, TLR4. Following graduation, I spent 2 years at the NIH through the Intermural Postbaccalaureate Research Award program. This immersive experience taught me rigorous approaches to molecular virology and allowed me to take on independent research projects. I performed in vitro and in vivo experiments to explore the impact of influenza cross-protective immunity on viral evolution. I have since built on these skills at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington through the Microbiology graduate program by continuing my research profiling influenza evolutionary dynamics. In 2018, I was awarded an NSF graduate research fellowship to support my work. In my most recent publication, I developed a new serological assay for measuring the potency of antibodies targeting the influenza virus neuraminidase protein. I am now focused on studying antibody dynamics in response to SARS-CoV-2 in the pediatric population and will defend my thesis on my body of work in December 2021.

I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.

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