About Lauren
I am a PhD student in the Geiss lab working on NSP13 of SARS-CoV-2. Currently, my project will be looking at non-structural protein 13 (NSP13), the helicase of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. With an increase in variants across the world, more antivirals are needed that can be cross-reactive to multiple variants. NSP13 is highly conserved in SARS-CoV-2 and disrupting NSP13 is lethal to virus replication; therefore, designing antivirals to this structure, is of promise. Understanding more of the helicase/ATPase function of NSP13 can allow for more rational antiviral design not just to SARS-CoV-2, but to other helicases of other viruses as well. For fun, I am teaching myself to crochet (my personal favorite projects being mini coronaviruses, not to scale of course), hanging with my cat Merc, and exploring my new home of Colorado.
Education
MA, Biotechnology, Boston University, 2019BA, Molecular biology and biochemistry, Boston University, 2019
Publications
Lan, T.C.T., Allan, M.F., Malsick, L.E. et al. Secondary structural ensembles of the SARS-CoV-2 RNA genome in infected cells. Nat Commun 13, 1128 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28603-2Tong, P., Gautam, A., Windsor, I.W., Travers, M., Chen, Y., Garcia, N., Whiteman, N.B., McKay, L.G.A., Storm, N., Malsick, L.E., Honko, A.N., Lelis, F.J.N., Habibi, S., Jenni, S., Cai, Y., Rennick, L.J., Duprex, W.P., McCarthy, K.R., Lavine, C.L., Zuo, T., Lin, J., Zuiani, A., Feldman, J., MacDonald, E.A., Hauser, B.M., Griffths, A., Seaman, M.S., Schmidt, A.G., Chen, B., Neuberg, D., Bajic, G., Harrison, S.C., Wesemann, D.R. (2021). Memory B cell repertoire for recognition of evolving SARS-CoV-2 spike. Cell;184(19):4969-4980.e15. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.025. Williams, L.M., Sridhar, S., Samaroo, J., Peart, J., Adindu, E.K., Addanki, A., DiRusso, C.J., BB522 Molecular Biology Laboratory*, Aguirre Carrión, P.J., Rodriguez-Sastre, N., Siggers, T., Gilmore, T.D. (2021). Comparison of NF-?B from the protists Capsaspora owczarzaki and Acanthoeca spectabilis reveals extensive evolutionary diversification of this transcription factor. Commun Biol.;4(1):1404. doi: 10.1038/s42003-021-02924-2.
*List of authors from BB522 included in the acknowledgements
Nikitin, P., DiMuzio, J., Dowling, J., Patel, N., Bingaman-Steele, J., Heimbach, B., Henriquez, N., Nicolescu, C., Polley, A., Howanski, R., Nath, M., Shukla, H., Finn, J., Liang, L., Smith, T., Storm, N., McKay, L.G.A., Johnson, R., Malsick, L.E., Honko, A., Griffiths, A., Sarma, P., Geising, D., Morin, M., Robinson, M. (2021). Preclinical Efficacy of IMM-BCP-01, a Highly Active Patient-Derived Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Cocktail. bioRxiv 2021.10.18.464900; doi: 10.1101/2021.10.18.464900Banerjee, K., Pierson, B., Carrier, E., Malsick, L., Hu, C., Daudenarde, S., Brownell, D., Koeris, M., Crowley, E., Bird, P., Benzinger, M.J., Flannery, J., Mastalerz, A., Agin, J., Goins, D., Salfinger, Y., Brodsky, M., Ziemer, W. (2018). Validation of Workflow Changes, Phage Concentration and Reformatted Detection Threshold for the Sample6 DETECT/L™ Test: Level 3 Modification. J AOAC Int.;101(6):1895-1904.Banerjee, K., Peirson, B., Hu, C., Carrier, E., Malsick, L., Tarasova, Y., Daudenarde, S., Brownell, D., Koeris, M., Klass, N., Bird, P., Benzinger, M.J., Agin, J., Goins, D. (2018). The Validation of the Sample6 DETECTTM HT/L for AOAC Research Institute. J AOAC Int.;101(5):1584-1592.