An interview with Laura Ellis, 5th-year Virology PhD student and Member of the Infectious Diseases Consortium (IDC), an interdisciplinary HILS-wide community of students and faculty engaged in infectious disease research.
Q: Where are you from, and where did you go for undergrad?
LE: I grew up in upstate NY in Clifton Park. It's a small town near Saratoga Springs. I went to Brown University and majored in Biology.
Q: Did you do research before coming to Harvard? If so, what sort of research did you do?
LE: My undergrad thesis was about my research using a systems biology approach to look at bone remodeling. For that I worked with Anne Fausto-Sterling. After Brown I went to NIH and worked in Brian Murphy's lab, where I studied accessory proteins of parainfluenza virus 1. After NIH I came here.
Q: And what are you currently researching here?
LE: I'm currently studying JC Virus, which causes a brain disease called Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy, or PML for short. Traditionally, JC virus infects oligodendrocytes, but we've seen some cases where there's been an infection of neurons, which is interesting because infections of these cell types had not been previously observed. My thesis project has been studying a JC Virus variant isolated from a patient who had infected neurons and trying to understand what changes in this virus (compared to the wild type) are doing to viral replication. I'm using a cell culture model to study it, and my goal is to figure out which changes in the virus are causing changes in the phenotype.
Q: What other research does the Koralnik Lab perform?
LE: We also study the immune response to JC virus and its effect on disease outcome. We also do research investigating metabolites in the brain using imaging technology.
Q: What do you plan on doing after you graduate?
LE: I'm interested in working in industry. Things like drug development, vaccine development, pharmaceuticals, etc.
Q: As a member of the IDC Student Steering Committee, what do you hope to see as the program develops?
LE: That's a good question. I would like to see some more infectious disease related nanocourses. The one currently offered on the microbiome looks good so far, and I'd be interested in attending the other courses already offered as well. I guess for future IDC courses I'd like to see more broad coverage of infectious diseases. By that I mean even if I'm not an expert on the subject at hand, I'd like to be able to understand what's going on in the nanocourse. For example, if I'm not an expert on Parasitology, which I'm not, as a Virology student, I'd like to attend a nanocourse that can tell me about Parisitology on a level I can understand. I think it's important to have different levels of detail depending on who your audience is. If things are too mechanistic it can be hard for people who aren't as familiar with the subject matter to understand. These broader topics for nanocourses would also be good for incoming students, so they can get an idea of the scope of what's being done at Harvard.
Q: Why are you interested in infectious diseases and virology?
LE: I got interested in viruses because they're such small organisms that don't even really have the definition of life, but they wreak so much havoc. They're tiny little things that can cause such horrible diseases. JC virus only has six proteins, but is capable of causing a fatal brain disease.
Q: What do you like to do outside the lab?
LE: I like to go rock climbing and ice climbing, which is how I met Zofia (The IDC Curriculum Fellow), who is a good friend of mine. She got me involved with the IDC. I also enjoy baking and cooking as well as skiing.
(Click here for more information on the IDC; additional information on the Virology PhD Program can be found here)