Kristen is a post-doctoral researcher in the Elde and Sundquist labs. She studies a retrotransposed copy of an ESCRT-family gene that has roles in cytokinesis, viral budding and retrotransposition. Kristen grew up on a dairy farm in upstate NY – Therefore, she loves all dairy products, most animals, and physical labor. She received her BS in Biochemistry from Tufts University and completed a combined DVM and PhD program at Colorado State University. For her PhD, she studied the intra- and inter-species transmission of chronic wasting disease. She is interested in understanding the mechanisms of infectious disease pathogenesis and transmission, with the goal of intervention. She is also interested in skiing, climbing, baking, light construction, and heavy gardening.
evolutionary genetics & cell biology