The Wilson Lab 

Rachael is a third-year Ph.D. student in the department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology at Vanderbilt University. She is from Spanish Fort, Alabama, and completed her B.S. in Chemistry with a concentration in Biochemistry at the University of Montevallo in 2020. While completing her undergraduate degree, she worked remotely as a guest researcher fellow for the CDC and WHO, collaborating on the Global Burden of Influenza (IcEBErG) Project. After graduating, she worked under Dr. Rajindra Aryal in Dr. Cummings’ lab at Harvard Medical School, where she investigated Cosmc knockout effect on post-translational modifications, specifically O-glycosylation of the LDL receptor. During her time at Vanderbilt under the direction of Dr. John Wilson and Dr. Jeff Rathmell, she is aiming to engineer immunotherapies to reprogram metabolism in the context of cancer and infection. She enjoys spending her free time working out, cooking, and hanging out with her golden retriever, Gizmo.