Alexander Bunnell is an Associate Project Manager for the VVC. He is a graduate of Lipscomb University where he studied Project Management and Corporate Management. He provides support for the planning, developing and executing of day to day projects. He manages intellectual property, material requests and CDA requests, in addition to assisting with grant and contract progress reports. He is also an acting liaison between CTTC and the lab and assists the Senior Program Manager with collaboration management.

John Abbott is a first-year undergraduate student at Vanderbilt University majoring in Biomedical Engineering. John plays guitar and cymbals for Vanderbilt's Spirit of Gold marching band, and for four years, performed in a touring rock band called Five After Five. In his free time, he enjoys cooking, skating, training jiu-jitsu, hiking, and watching anime from a critical perspective. John is a Carell Family Merit Scholar.

Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Lauren is a current sophomore at Vanderbilt University majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Engineering Management and Math in the College of Engineering. She worked at the Michigan Science Center running the BASF Children’s Chemistry Lab before joining the Crowe lab to gain a better understanding of the normal ongoings of a professional research lab. Lauren hopes to pursue either a research position or work as a Project Manager at a technology company after graduation.

Mikayla Alsopp is currently a second year undergraduate at Vanderbilt University double majoring in Medicine, Health, & Society and Public Policy. She plans to receive her Masters of Public Health (MPH) post graduation and maintain a career with global healthcare institutions specializing in vaccine and HIV/AIDS prevention accessibility. On campus, she is involved with Partners in Health Engage and is a Vanderbilt Tour Guide. In her spare time, she volunteers at her local church, loves to workout, and enjoys exploring Nashville.

Ben did his graduate work in the Biochemistry Department at the University of Wisconsin – Madison in the laboratory of Alessandro Senes, where he received his PhD in 2015. His graduate work was focused on understanding the dimerization of transmembrane helices, and the role of weak backbone to backbone hydrogen bonds (Cα–H···O=C bonds). He developed an in silico method that showed weak hydrogen bonds are likely playing a significant role in the association of membrane proteins containing the GxxxG motif. In 2015 he began his postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Jens Meiler where he worked on the development of orbital-based scoring functions in Rosetta. He is currently working on computational design of antibodies and vaccines.  

Clara studied Pharmacy at the University of Kiel, Germany, from 2007 to 2011. In 2012, she completed her practical training working as a pharmacist for Boehringer Ingelheim in Biberach an der Riss, Germany, with a focus on formulation development. She is a licensed pharmacist in Germany.

From 2013 to 2017, she obtained a PhD in Pharmacy from the University of Bonn, Germany. Her dissertation focused on small molecule ligand discovery for understudied G protein-coupled receptors, by using high-throughput screening methods, followed by in-depth pharmacological characterization  and classical hit-to-lead approaches. As part of her thesis work, she spent three months at Vanderbilt University to study computational methods for ligand discovery in the lab of Jens Meiler.

In 2018, she joined the Meiler and the Crowe labs in a collaborative project on vaccine and antibody development as a post-doctoral fellow. Her work comprises of computational aspects as epitope-focused immunogen design as well as the experimental screening and characterization of immunogen candidates. She is particularly interested in understanding the immune response to Ebola, and Marburg.

Cristina obtained in 2011 her Bachelor's Degree with honors in Biological and Molecular Sciences at the University of Studies of Pisa, Italy. After moving to the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Italy, she started her career in the field of protein engineering designing an artificial DNA polymerase. She obtained the Master Degree in Molecular and Industrial Biotechnology with honors in 2014. In the same year she moved to the University of Liege, Belgium, to start the PhD. Again in the protein engineering field, she used both computational and experimental approaches to design artificial proteins based on the TIM-barrel fold. She obtained the Doctoral Degree in Science in 2019 and immediately joined Meiler Lab at Vanderbilt University for a Postdoc. Her expertise in protein engineering is now applied to the development of antibodies and vaccines in collaboration with Crowe Lab.