I wanted to get involved with undergraduate research early because I anticipate conducting research in my future career. I expect to pursue an MD-PhD to practice and research pediatric gastroenterology. I am fascinated by the gastrointestinal tract due to my own experience living with an autoimmune disease for ten years. This research combines my personal, professional, and academic interests.

Norovirus is a very contagious viral infection that is the most common cause of childhood diarrhea. With this project, we aim to examine associations between norovirus disease severity and innate immune responses using a newly developed mouse model in the Karst laboratory. We predict that murine norovirus-susceptible mouse strains will produce reduced levels of interferon, a critical antiviral immune response, compared to murine norovirus-resistant mouse strains.