Laura is a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University in the lab of Dr. Sabra Klein. She received her Ph.D. in molecular virology, where she focused on understanding how RNA viruses manipulate and alter host metabolism during infection to support viral replication. In Dr. Klein’s lab, Laura’s research focuses on understanding the metabolic drivers of sex differences in vaccine-mediated immunity and viral pathogenesis. She utilizes mouse models of influenza vaccination and infection to investigate and characterize the metabolic state of B cells from male and female mice upon vaccination.

Laura’s preliminary observations suggest that male and female B cells have divergent metabolic responses to antigenic stimulation, correlating with the quantity and quality of their antibody responses. Her ongoing research aims to further define these differences in influenza vaccination, determine whether this observation is unique to influenza vaccination or universal, characterize the regulatory role of sex hormones on B cell metabolism, and explore whether the use of small molecule agonists/antagonists of metabolic pathways can reverse these observed sex differences. The results of these studies will be used to identify the metabolic factors driving sex differences in vaccine response, which can then be leveraged to improve vaccine efficacy.