Graduate Student - Ph.D.

Biological Sciences

Immunobiology

University of California, San Diego (San Diego, CA)

Emily Troemel

My research has focused on the characterization of zebrafish blood with parallels to the mammalian immune system in the effort to better understand human health and disease.

Immunity is a complex defense system that requires a homeostatic preparedness, fast and specific recognition of invading pathogens, and subsequent behaviors that clear the pathogen thus reestablishing the integrity of the host. Blood leukocytes are responsible for the essential features of this system, the interplay of which regulate health and disease. Visualizing their activities in vivo has led to some important discoveries. The Traver lab has pioneered several aspects of using zebrafish to study immunity and hematopoietic development. Working as a researcher there I have primarily worked on establishing the zebrafish as a model for eosinophil and dendritic cell biology. In addition to sharing several morphological features with their mammalian counterparts, zebrafish eosinophils and dendritic cells have similar genetic identities and functional behaviors in vitro and in vivo. These findings establish the zebrafish as a promosing model with which to study these cell types in terms of human health and disease.

2011-present NSF graduate student fellowship