Laura Powell

Laura Powell joined the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program (IGP) at Vanderbilt in 2014 and the Crowe Lab in 2015. Her research focuses on human B cell responses to viruses that infect the brain, including rabies virus and alphaviruses. The approach she takes involves generating panels of potently neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies using peripheral blood mononuclear cells from survivors of viral infection. These antibodies are then used to perform epitope mapping studies for the determination of antigenic sites. Laura recently earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Delaware, where she majored in molecular biology and minored in piano performance.