Alyssa Swiss, M.S. Student
I graduated from Clemson University with a Biological Sciences degree and a Chemistry minor. After graduating, I worked as a Research Scientist at Elastrin Therapeutics for two years. In 2023, I entered the graduate program at Virginia Commonwealth University and joined the Marconi lab in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. My research is focused on the causative agents of human and veterinary ehrlichiosis. Ehrlichiosis is a life-threatening, tick-borne disease caused by obligate intracellular bacterial species, including E. chaffeensis, E. canis, E. ewingii, and E. muris. Specifically, I am employing recombinant chimeric epitope-based approaches to develop next-generation vaccine antigens and point-of-care diagnostic tests.