Read the full story by Julie Bonette, published by Thayer School of Engineering.
Jennifer Lai, Thayer ’19, a Dartmouth engineering PhD candidate, has been selected as a 2020 Schmidt Science Fellow, along with just 21 other early-career scientists from across the world. Lai, a protein engineer who designs vaccines, plans to use the fellowship to pivot her research toward the high-throughput analysis of antibody repertoire data.
“A problem with the pathogens that we’re working on at Dartmouth is that not all antibody responses are equally protective,” says Lai. “My proposed research shift will involve thinking about antibody responses holistically using really high-throughput methods of interrogating the antibody response. I aim to gain expertise in technological methods as well as the statistical and computational analytical tools necessary to be able to draw conclusions from all of the data.”
Each of the new fellows aims to harness interdisciplinary approaches to tackle long-term societal challenges, including infectious disease, climate change, and biodiversity loss, according to Schmidt Science Fellows, a program of Schmidt Futures in partnership with the Rhodes Trust.
