Samantha Tse, MD/PhD Student

Talk title: Non-Canonical Pattern Recognition by a Nuclear Hormone Receptor Identifies Virulent Bacteria in C. elegans

Winner of the RISE: The Robert W. Finberg, MD Memorial Research Training Award - Student Award 

About Samantha:

Samantha (Sammy) Tse is an MD/PhD student in Dr. Read Pukkila-Worley’s lab. She completed her undergraduate degree at Boston College and trained in the laboratory of Kenneth Williams, PhD, where she developed her interest in innate immunity studying the role of macrophages in the development of HIV-associated neurodegenerative diseases. She continued her research in HIV post-undergrad characterizing the immune profiles of patients who naturally control infection in the laboratory of Xu Yu, Ph.D. and Mathias Lichterfeld, MD, PhD at the Ragon Institute in Cambridge, MA. After matriculating into the MD/PhD program at UMass Chan, she joined the Pukkila-Worley lab for her thesis research to discover new mechanisms by which hosts detect intestinal pathogens. Sammy has been in multiple leadership roles in the MD/PhD student council, is a passionate educator and aspires to continue her research in intestinal immunity to become a physician-scientist specializing in pediatric gastroenterology.