Alfredo Colina, BA

Research: While I was an undergraduate student at Grinnell College, I worked on characterizing the microbial composition of soil environments surrounding Iowa farmlands. After obtaining my undergraduate degree, I spent one year working at Iowa State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine in the lab of Doug Jones, MS, VMD, PhD, where I was afforded the opportunity to dive deeper into the world of immunology and gain a stronger understanding of the immune response to vaccines. Prior to beginning my graduate education at MCW, I completed the Post-baccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) at The University of Iowa. This program provides individuals from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups in biomedical fields with an opportunity to gain exposure to career development activities, seminars, coursework, GRE preparation, and laboratory research experiences. Now as a graduate student at MCW I am excited to grow as a researcher and become an expert in the field of Immunology. As part of the Zamora lab, my goal is to understand the immune response to cancer neoantigens and identify mechanisms that make cancer immunotherapies more efficacious and inclusive for diverse populations. As part of my research, I will be taking advantage of newly developed instruments, like the Berkley Lights Lighting platform, that allow researchers to link the phenotypes, function, and genetic profiles of immune cells in order to advance cell-based therapies used to treat cancer.