Our team

Leila Shepard, M.D. Candidate, University of Virginia School of Medicine 

Leila is a second-year student at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. She graduated with distinction from UVA in 2023 with a B.S. in Biology, completing an honors thesis on the evolutionary costs of avoidance in the C. elegans–S. marcescens host-parasite system. Leila joined our lab through the NIH-funded SMRI medical student internship program. In our lab she is studying fusion proteins in acute myeloid leukemia cells. Outside of the lab, she enjoys running, swimming, hiking, and watercolor painting.