Adrienne Wilburn
Boise, Idaho
Divanovic Lab
Research focus: Pregnancy and obesity associated inflammation
Why choose us? I’m a really big fan of the faculty in our program. There is a wide spread of personalities and expertise in many different areas of Immunology. It was very easy to find labs I was interested in rotating with and choosing a lab was very challenging because I had such a great experience in all three rotations. In addition to having awesome faculty the resources available to you are pretty extensive. I was impressed when I found out we have access to both the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and University of Cincinnati research cores. The labs are also very collaborative and many share resources amongst each other such as mouse lines, reagents, and equipment.
Why study Immunology? I think most people are surprised when they learn how many systems and physiological processes the immune system can impact. The inflammation produced by immune cells does so much more (both good and bad) besides killing infectious microbes. For example, your gut microbes and immune system share a very close relationship of regulating one and other. Plaque formation that leads to heart attacks is driven in part by immune cells. Pregnancy regulates and alters immune cell activity, protecting the fetus. Obesity can drive harmful inflammation that exacerbates other diseases. The list could go on and on. Suffice to say, getting a graduate degree in immunology will not limit you to only studying the immune system.
What will be the thing years from now that you’ll remember about the program? The rigor of our first semester of classes, especially Foundations of Immunology. What I can say though is that it was worth it. Once I joined a lab I was able to quickly and confidently dive into the literature on my project’s topic. The bonds I formed with my classmates while we survived that class together will also be very memorable. While some of those study nights were long and went late into the night, many of them also had very memorable, hilarious conversations.
Awards or publications: N/A