- Microbiology Fellowship, The University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
- Immunology Fellowship, The University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
- Clinical and Anatomic Pathology Residency, University of Vermont Medical Center, Burlington, VT
- M.D., The University of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
- B.A., History, Anthropology, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Areas of expertise
Microbiology, Immunology
BIO
I am a board-certified Medical Microbiologist and Pathologist and was appointed Assistant Professor of Pathology at the University of Vermont in 2019, with the goal of becoming an independently funded physician-scientist. My training encompasses human pathophysiology, immunology and infectious diseases. After completing a clinical fellowship in Medical Microbiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, I returned to UVM as an Assistant Professor in Clinical Pathology and joined the UVM Vaccine Testing Center (VTC) and the Center for Translational Global Infectious Diseases (TGIR) COBRE as a research project leader. The TGIR has provided critical career development opportunities and support at this pivotal time in my career and continues to serve as my academic home. Importantly, the TGIR has also enabled my research interests to expand through collaborations and synergies with faculty members and external collaborators. To capitalize on my past research experiences and current environment, additional training in advanced analysis techniques and data integration are needed.
My research has been driven by a desire to understand the complex interactions between the human immune system and microbes, including both pathogens and commensal organisms, with the overarching goal of harnessing these relationships to treat and prevent human disease. During clinical training, I established a Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT) program to provide patient-access to FMT as a treatment of recurrent Clostridium difficile infections. I studied FMT as a treatment for immunedysregulation in Ulcerative Colitis, serving as Co-Principal Investigator for a randomized clinical trial at UVM Medical Center. Research stemming from that trial included basic immunology work in the laboratory of Dr. Ralph Budd and microbiome analysis in collaboration with Eric Alm’s lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The main themes of my crystalizing research expertise is in mucosal immunology, microbiota-immune interactions, and vaccine development for enteric pathogens. Development of protective vaccines for a variety of enteric pathogens have proven to be particularly difficult. This may be because the complex microbial environment to which the mucosal immune system is continually exposed promotes a predilection for towards immunotolerance. Modulation of enteric vaccines to better target protective immune responses are critical. Modulating agents may include microbially-derived vaccine adjuvants and/or direct manipulation of the gut microbiota, particularly in infancy when many enteric vaccines are administered.
Publications
Bio
I am a board-certified Medical Microbiologist and Pathologist and was appointed Assistant Professor of Pathology at the University of Vermont in 2019, with the goal of becoming an independently funded physician-scientist. My training encompasses human pathophysiology, immunology and infectious diseases. After completing a clinical fellowship in Medical Microbiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, I returned to UVM as an Assistant Professor in Clinical Pathology and joined the UVM Vaccine Testing Center (VTC) and the Center for Translational Global Infectious Diseases (TGIR) COBRE as a research project leader. The TGIR has provided critical career development opportunities and support at this pivotal time in my career and continues to serve as my academic home. Importantly, the TGIR has also enabled my research interests to expand through collaborations and synergies with faculty members and external collaborators. To capitalize on my past research experiences and current environment, additional training in advanced analysis techniques and data integration are needed.
My research has been driven by a desire to understand the complex interactions between the human immune system and microbes, including both pathogens and commensal organisms, with the overarching goal of harnessing these relationships to treat and prevent human disease. During clinical training, I established a Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT) program to provide patient-access to FMT as a treatment of recurrent Clostridium difficile infections. I studied FMT as a treatment for immunedysregulation in Ulcerative Colitis, serving as Co-Principal Investigator for a randomized clinical trial at UVM Medical Center. Research stemming from that trial included basic immunology work in the laboratory of Dr. Ralph Budd and microbiome analysis in collaboration with Eric Alm’s lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The main themes of my crystalizing research expertise is in mucosal immunology, microbiota-immune interactions, and vaccine development for enteric pathogens. Development of protective vaccines for a variety of enteric pathogens have proven to be particularly difficult. This may be because the complex microbial environment to which the mucosal immune system is continually exposed promotes a predilection for towards immunotolerance. Modulation of enteric vaccines to better target protective immune responses are critical. Modulating agents may include microbially-derived vaccine adjuvants and/or direct manipulation of the gut microbiota, particularly in infancy when many enteric vaccines are administered.