While at UConn, alum Tyler Gavitt ’17, ’19, ’21 (CLAS, CAHNR) found opportunities to conduct research on pneumonia and the coronavirus, experiences that prepared him for recent work in vaccine research and design.
Describe your current position. What are some unique aspects of your job?
I currently work as a postdoctoral fellow at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI). My research focuses on the design and development of next-generation coronavirus vaccines. I get to work as part of a multidisciplinary team, including members from around the world, tackling some of the biggest questions about coronavirus vaccines and coronaviruses as pathogens. DHVI is one of the largest academic vaccine research units in the world and it is amazing to get to work as part of such a large, collaborative group to tackle problems that a single laboratory would not be able to tackle. he treated them himself.
What was your major at UConn? How did this prepare you for your current job?
My undergraduate major at UConn was Molecular and Cell Biology. My degree was in Pathobiology. I think both helped me find a love for science and the scientific method and made me ask questions. My undergraduate curriculum allowed me to take a wide variety of classes, and one of them, Infectious Diseases in Pathobiology, led me to begin undergraduate research. That program really allowed me to lean into my interest in infectious diseases and explore a lot of classes that I didn’t have access to as an undergraduate. In addition, Pathobiology does a lot of really translational research, and I liked that it always felt like there was a path where the things I was working on in the lab could one day go into a clinic where they could have a tangible benefit to people’s health.
My lab studied pneumonia vaccines and ways they could be improved so they work more consistently for more people. In 2020, when the US was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to apply some of that knowledge towards testing different methods for delivering vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. I really enjoyed that job because I felt like I was able to contribute something to the solution of this monumental problem that we were all facing. I really credit that work with starting my interest in coronaviruses, and when it came time to look for a postdoc, I knew I wanted to continue that line of research wherever I went next. From there, it really just snowballed, and with my job now, I can apply that love of science and that curiosity to answering big scientific questions.
What is a typical day like for you?
One of the beautiful things about my job is that no day is really “typical” in any sense. I tend to go to the lab around 8:30 am, have a morning coffee, and then start experiments. I will usually spend most of the day away from the lab and meetings, and I tend to finish the day between 5 and 6pm. Experimental designs change based on the findings of other studies or meetings, or their topics change as new data emerge. So nothing is too static, and things tend not to get stale. This kind of schedule change keeps things fresh and interesting.
What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your field? How do you handle them?
I think the field of vaccine design has quite a few challenges. One of the biggest challenges of the coronavirus right now is that we simply cannot predict the future. There’s no way to predict what the next big mutation will be, or which animal-specific coronavirus is most likely to jump to humans. But we can approach this problem by studying what we have access to now and collaborating with people who specialize in some of those problem areas. Recently, there has been really exciting progress in understanding why certain mutations in SARS-CoV-2 seem to show up over and over again, and this is helping us understand the virus and the changes it undergoes better than before.
I think the next big problem in this area right now is communication and public trust. Things changed really quickly during the pandemic and people had a lot of questions about vaccines, the virus and how to protect themselves and their loved ones. I think, as scientists, we were reminded how important it is to have open discussions with the wider public, and to move forward we need to build on that dialogue, engage people to ask questions and we provide them with the answers they need. . We need to restore public confidence in science, and I think the best way to do that is through clear communication and open discussion with the public.
2024 is 10th anniversary of Health in CAHNR. How does your work affect human health?
2020 was a truly startling reminder of how vulnerable we all are to new pathogens. In the last 25 years alone, we have seen three different outbreaks of novel coronaviruses, and we expect that with climate change and human migration, additional outbreaks of novel coronaviruses will occur sometime in the future. The vaccines we are working on aim to address this possibility, extending the protection provided beyond the 2019 SARS-CoV-2 virus to allow it to protect against even more diverse coronaviruses in other species. The hope is that, if another new outbreak occurs in the future, we may be able to use these next-generation vaccines to respond much more quickly than we were able to with SARS-CoV-2.
What advice would you give to current UConn CAHNR students?
I would really encourage them to use their resources. CAHNR has excellent faculty and excellent graduate students, and CAHNR’s smaller class sizes make those resources much more available to you than you might find at other colleges. I always found the faculty to be willing to help me, and my TAs were always willing to answer my questions, or help me during office hours.
What is your favorite memory from your time at UConn?
The 2014 men’s basketball championship game they are broadcasting at Gampel Pavilion. There were about 5,000 students packed into the arena, watching the game on giant projector screens. I was there with some of my best friends and the whole building was shaking with cheers. When UConn won the game, everyone rushed out and flooded Fairfield Way with thousands of celebrating students.
What is your favorite UConn Dairy Bar flavor?
It has to be their chocolate chip cookie dough. It’s my favorite kind of ice cream anywhere, but Dairy Bar does it better than anyone else.