Kelsey Pilewski, Ph.D. and Andrea Shiakolas, Ph.D. are part of the Ivelin Georgiev Lab at Vanderbilt Vaccine Center
Originally from upstate New York, Kelsey received her undergraduate degrees in Biochemistry and French from the University at Buffalo in 2016. Kelsey joined the Georgiev Lab in 2017 to complete her thesis research investigating the discovery and characterization of antibody and vaccine candidates against a number of pathogens. She received her PhD from Vanderbilt University in March 2022 and joined the lab as a postdoctoral fellow shortly after, where she is now working to expand the discovery capabilities of LIBRA-seq. Outside of lab, Kelsey can be found hiking or baking.
Andrea Shiakolas is a postdoctoral fellow in the Georgiev laboratory. She completed her PhD at Vanderbilt in the Georgiev laboratory in 2022. Her research focuses on developing and applying antibody discovery technologies (LIBRA-seq) against a variety of viral pathogens, including HIV, influenza, and SARS-CoV-2. She is originally from Dallas, Texas and obtained her undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt in 2015. She also worked at the Vaccine Research Center in Dr. John Mascola’s group at the NIH studying the antibody/virus co-evolution in the context of HIV. Outside of the lab, she loves playing with her puppy Doug, drinking wine, and going hiking.
An interview with
our scientists:
Learn more about
their research:
Whose lab are you in, and what made you choose their lab?
Kelsey - Georgiev Lab! Besides the amazing science, the Georgiev lab has a really collaborative and caring culture.
Andea - I'm in the Georgiev lab. I chose Ivelin's lab for my grad school studies because I loved working with the people and the collaborative environment. I also loved working on developing new antibody discovery technologies!
When you were five-years-old, what did you want to be when you grew up?
K - Dancer! I danced 5 days/week from ages 3-18, my favorite place to be was on stage.
A - When I was five, I wanted to be an art teacher when I grew up! I always loved school and my teachers, and I also loved being creative.
What was it about science that drew you to it?
K - Science seemed like solving cool mysteries while also getting to help people.
A - I loved the idea of discovery and learning new things to potentially help humankind. No matter how big or small the contribution is, the idea that our work could potentially help someone someday is incredibly motivating to me! Also science can be really fun, and I love doing tangible experiments everyday!
In a nutshell, what do you study?
K - Antibodies!
A - I study antibodies!
Why is your research important? What is its larger impact, and/or how do you foresee it impacting public health?
K - I think the current pandemic really highlights why vaccines and antibody therapeutics are SO important to study. LIBRA-seq can help us understand where previous vaccines went wrong and also help us to prepare the next possible outbreak.
A - Developing tools to study the antibody response aids in both antibody discovery and characterization of the immune response to pathogens like infectious diseases. This is super important because antibodies can be used as therapeutic molecules themselves and also can be used for the generation of vaccines!
What has been your biggest challenge as a scientist?
K - Science is 90% failure. I've had to learn not to internalize these failures and compare myself to others who are seemingly easily succeeding.
A - Being in science is an incredibly challenging field! There is lots of failure, troubleshooting, and many unanswered questions to deal with on a daily basis. It can definitely be challenging to try to work quickly against time pressures (for example while we are facing a worldwide pandemic); however, it is definitely rewarding to contribute to a fast-paced field.
Best way to spend time while waiting on an experiment to finish:
K - Chatting with friends!
A - Chatting with friends!
What are you looking forward to doing most, once the pandemic is under control, and life starts to return to a state of normalcy?
K - Travelling!
A - Going to lots and lots of concerts!
