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
Matthew Owens
Matthew Owens is a CMB graduate student, originally from Richmond VT who did his undergraduate degree at UVM. In the Bruce lab, he will be working on understanding how the diverse roles the Rab11 isoforms play during influenza virus infection affect viral trafficking and reassortment for influenza A and influenza B viruses.
Deborah Ajayi
Deborah Ajayi is a CMB graduate student, originally from Osun, Nigeria who did her undergraduate degree at Obafemi Awolowo University. In the Bruce lab, she will be working on identifying how Rab11 is highjacked during influenza infection and its potential role as a host range determinant.
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. They are currently a lab technician leading efforts to understand the mechanism of viral entry for H3N2 isolates.
Alumni
Conor Fanuele
Conor is from North Andover, Massachusetts. He joined the lab in 2024 as an undergraduate (Sophomore) in the Microbiology major at UVM. His Distinguished Undergraduate Research Project focused on the role of the Rab11 pathway in Influenza B infection, and was supported by a Brennan Summer Research Fellowship.
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 completed her accelerated Masters in Microbiology in the Bruce Lab in 2025 and worked as a lab technician until 2026 focused on the role of Rab25 in IAV infection.
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. She was awarded an F31 fellowship in Dr Anice Lowen’s lab in 2026.
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 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.
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