Todd Bell, Principal Investigator, DVM, PhD, Diplomate ACVP
Todd Bell, a new faculty member at ISU, is a recently retired US Army Soldier and scientist. He is dual trained as a biodefense veterinary pathologist and virologist. His last duty assignment from 2020 to 2023 was as the Foundational Sciences Director at USAMRIID. The FSD Director manages the four science divisions within USAMRIID consisting of a multidisciplinary research directorate of over two hundred military, civilian, and contract personnel. USAMRIID is the premier medical biological defense laboratory in the US and provides end to end leading edge capabilities to deter and defend against current and emerging biological threat agents. USAMRIID is the largest Biosafety Level 3 and 4 containment laboratory in the Department of Defense and the Nation.
Brianna Jones, Research Scientist, MS, PhD Candidate
Brianna is interested in the relationship between cell signaling pathways and drug discovery. Her professional history includes the understanding of cell signaling pathways in several disease models including Alzheimer’s, melanoma, leukemia, and pancreatic cancer. Currently, Brianna is working on using FDA-approved drugs to target and manipulate the cell signaling present during viral pathogenesis. Brianna’s professional interests also include nanovaccine particles, metabolomics, mouse modeling, and microscopy. Brianna studied Biology at the University of Florida and Cancer Biology at the University of South Florida.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianna-jones-4a6045250/
Breigha Boyle, Graduate Student
Breigha graduated from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in 2023 with a degree in medical laboratory science. Breigha joined the Iowa State Immunobiology PhD program after working in the diagnostic and research laboratory at the UW Health University Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. Some of her research interests include cellular virus-host interactions, novel vaccine development, and mouse modeling.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/breigha-boyle-442619203
Lauren Bloodgood, Graduate Student
Lauren graduated from Missouri Western State University in Spring 2023 with a degree in biology and a concentration in health science. Lauren’s undergraduate research was in identifying and characterizing antimicrobial compounds from soil microbes. Lauren’s current research interests include mouse modeling, virus-host cell interactions, nanovaccine particles, and microscopy.