Barbara Waring, a doctoral graduate student in the Christine Suetterlin lab, was selected as an ARCS Foundation Scholar. This award is intended to recognize and reward the most academically superior doctoral students, exhibiting outstanding promise as scientists, researchers and leaders. We are so proud of her!

Barbara started her academic adventures at Los Medanos College, a small community college in Pittsburg, California. She then transferred to UC Davis where she studied Agrobacterium rhizogenes pathogenesis in tomato plants. Shortly after graduating, she began studying at the University of Minnesota where she developed a novel vaccine platform for influenza A virus. After spending two years at UMN, Barbara matriculated to UC Irvine to pursue a PhD in developmental and cellular biology. Her thesis work focuses on identifying and characterizing host-pathogen interactions during Chlamydia trachomatis infection. Outside of the lab, Barbara is an avid yogi and enjoys outdoor adventures with her husband and dog.