Somerset Lifetimes 2020

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FORMER STUDENT RESEARCHES COVID VACCINE Larisa Labzin Class of 2002 Being a scientist has meant I have been able to travel a lot, which ironically was my main goal after school. I used my PhD to be able to travel around Europe and to attend many great conferences in different places. Scientifically one of my highlights was my PhD research which discovered how high density lipoprotein (aka the good cholesterol) is anti-inflammatory. After my PhD I was awarded two fellowships to move to Cambridge in the United Kingdom to work at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB). I studied how the inflammation triggered by viruses differs if you’re vaccinated against the virus. The LMB is one of the most prestigious research institutions in the world; it was officially the Laboratory where James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA back in the ‘50s. While there, two scientists were awarded Nobel Prizes for their work, Richard Henderson in 2017 and Gregory Winter in 2018. Living in Cambridge for three years, being able to meet great people, be immersed and perform outstanding science was a fantastic time in my career. When I returned to Australia in September 2019, I returned to UQ, at the IMB. I currently work with some fantastic scientists to understand how viruses trigger inflammation. We are now working to understand how SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 triggers inflammation, so we can understand why some people are getting so sick with COVID-19 and to develop better ways to treat it. The immune response is really complex and this pandemic has highlighted just how much we don’t know about the immune response to different viruses. If we want to quickly and safely develop an effective vaccine, understanding what the ‘right’ immune response is really important. My path to becoming an immunologist was not a direct one. I had an interest in biology (Mr Walker was my

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Larisa in Cambridge (top) in the lab in Cambridge (middle) and in Germany working on her PhD (bottom).