By Julia DiFiore
Adelaide Tovar is a third year graduate student in the Curriculum of Genetics and Molecular Biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She works in Samir Kelada’s lab studying how genetic variation in a specific type of white blood cell impacts the response to acute ozone exposure.
Before coming to Chapel Hill, Adelaide attended MIT where she became interested in biology as a college freshman during her introductory biology course. When learning about the immune system and VDJ recombination, she found it fascinating that our immune system is able to evolve so rapidly in order to protect us from new pathogens. While she had never enjoyed biology before, Adelaide quickly became captivated and has studied the immune system ever since.
Adelaide’s favorite part about research is the ability to design experiments to answer the questions that she is most curious about. By being part of the CONNECT program, she hopes that she can show students how science is conducted and help make high-level concepts more accessible. She really enjoys working with the students and teachers and answering all of their questions!
Eventually, Adelaide hopes to be a professor and lead her own research group. And though she misses the days she spent with her pet rooster while growing up near Fort Worth, TX (and actively lobbies her mentor for a lab pet), she now enjoys cooking, knitting, and seeing live music outside of the lab.
