Quinn Evangelique Hopen

PhD Student

Organization:

West Virginia University School of Medicine

Department:

Microbiology, Immunology & Cell Biology

Classification:

Graduate Assistant

I grew up in central WV and graduated from WVU's IMMB undergraduate program in 2021. After graduation, I began working as a laboratory technician in Dr. Jen Franko's lab in the School of Dentistry. During this time, I helped in the initiation of a head and neck squamous cell carcinoma murine model, with which we hope to examine sex-specific anti-tumor immune responses to HPV-negative head and neck SCC. Now, as a member of the IMP graduate program, I am continuing to move this project forward; I hope to elucidate the immune mechanisms by which disease incidence and mortality rates skew in a male-biased fashion. There are several factors that potentially influence these mechanisms — of interest to me are the impacts of sex hormones and sex chromosomes. I anticipate that this work will be pertinent in improving the success of cancer immunotherapeutics and bridging knowledge gaps related to sexually-dimorphic tumorigenesis and treatment efficacies.

Outside of the lab I love to spend time in nature. You can find me perusing trails in hiking boots or on a snowboard depending on the season. On the opposite hand, I also appreciate a day full of baking sweets and hanging out with my two cats, James and Franklin