Ian Boys

Elde Lab

Ian Boys

(he/him)

Post-doc

LSRF Fellow

Ian is a born-and-raised Texan who found it difficult to leave the state, despite wanting to do so since at least high school. Third time (undergrad, Ph.D., and ‘now’) was apparently the charm, and he is at the present deeply infatuated with SLC/Utah. As an undergraduate at Baylor University, he developed an interest in host-pathogen conflicts through his participation in the HHMI’s “SEA-Phages” program and through subsequent phage genomics research. He completed his Ph.D. in Immunology at UT Southwestern Medical Center under the mentorship of John Schoggins, where he studied antiviral effectors in species as diverse as bats and frogs. In the Elde lab, Ian is continuing along his trajectory of studying antiviral immunity in diverse species, as he believes that comparative immunology provides tools for understanding biological mechanism, functional significance, and the processes of evolution itself. While he is an evolutionary immunologist and/or virologist in lab, many of his hobbies involve microbiology. Notably, he brews, lacto-ferments vegetables, and has an off-and-on relationship with sourdough baking. He also enjoys all things culinary and loves spending time outdoors (now more than when in Texas). He additionally plays the cello and has eclectic tastes in music.