Fellow
Emory University
I grew up just outside Boston (Brookline, MA) and completed my MD/PhD at Tufts. My doctoral research was in Katya Heldwein's structural virology lab where I studied the mechanism of herpesvirus entry into cells. I am in my final year of ID fellowship as well as the Vaccinology Training Program at Emory, where I also did my residency as part of the ABIM research pathway. My current projects are in basic science research in Dr. Dick Compans and Dr. Chinglai Yang's lab, using structural biology techniques to rationally design vaccines. Pre-COVID, I was working on a heat-stable, highly-immunogenic ebola glycoprotein antigen to create an ebola vaccine that could be less expensive to produce and distribute than the current vaccines. After the pandemic began, I started a new project on COVID-19, attempting to create a universal sarbecovirus vaccine to protect against COVID-19, SARS, and “the next big one.” Pandemic-potential viruses have always been fascinating to me ever since I read Spillover (by David Quammen), and I hope to continue doing work in this area. Long term, I hope to spend my career doing basic science research in virology with a focus on vaccine antigen design, as well as time spent on inpatient care on an ID consult service.
In my free time I enjoy ultimate frisbee, board games, beer tasting, and hiking expeditions. My fiancee and I live in Atlanta, and we are eloping on the evening of the final day of ID week this year, which coincides with the 11th anniversary of our first date.
Disclosure: Gilead (Individual(s) Involved: Self): Shareholder
