Bruce Lab

Dr. Emily Bruce

Affiliations

Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Vermont

Education

  • Postdoctoral fellow, University of Pennsylvania — 2012-2014
    Advisor: Dr. Robert Doms. 
  • PhD (Virology), Cambridge University — 2009-2012
    Advisor: Dr. Paul Digard.  
  • M. Phil (Virology), Cambridge University — 2007-2008
    Advisor: Dr. Paul Digard.  
  • B.A. (Biochemistry), Vassar College — 2003-2007

Awards

  • Gates-Cambridge Scholar — 2007-2012
  • Gordon Research Conference — Travel Award 2011
  • Phi Beta Kappa Prize — 2007

Current members

Sara Jaffrani

Sara is from Alexandria, Louisiana. She joined the lab in 2023 as an undergraduate (Sophomore) double major in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and was awarded the Distinguished Undergraduate Summer Research Award from the MMG Department. She is now pursuing her accelerated Masters in Microbiology at in the Bruce Lab.

Allyson Turner

Allyson is from Candia, New Hampshire. They joined the lab in 2023 as an undergraduate (Junior) in the Molecular Genetics major at UVM. Allyson was awarded the Distinguished Undergraduate Research Summer Award which supported their work over the summer of 2024.

Conor Fanuele

Conor is from North Andover, Massachusetts. He joined the lab in 2024 as an undergraduate (Sophomore) in the Microbiology major at UVM.

Alumni

Madeline Schmidt

Madaline Schmidt

Madaline joined the lab in 2021 as a lab technician (while also completing her MPH), and in the summer of 2023 she started graduate school as a PhD student in the Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Graduate Program at Emory University.

Hannah Despres

Hannah is from Fayette, Maine. She did her bachelors at SUNY Plattsburgh in Nutrition. Hannah was a PhD candidate in the Cellular, Molecular and Biomedical Sciences (CMB) program at UVM, supported by a pre-doctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association.

After successfully defending her PhD in August of 2024, Hannah joined Matt Frieman’s lab at the University of Maryland for a postdoc focused on SARS-CoV-2 and influenza.

Hannah Despres
Hannah Kubinsk

Hannah Kubinski

Hannah is from Norton, Massachusetts. She joined the lab in 2021 as an undergraduate (Junior) in the Molecular Genetics major at UVM.  In 2022 Hannah graduated (winner of the Outstanding Senior in Molecular Genetics Award) and joined the Bruce lab as a technician.

Hannah started her PhD in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Duke University in August, 2024.