Megan O’Connor

The goal of my research program is to develop novel models of viral infection and co-infections and to understand viral pathogenesis, evaluate immune responses, and develop vaccine and treatment strategies for emerging infectious diseases. My research program focuses on emerging co-infections in people living with HIV to 1) understand risks of co-infection, 2) determine immune responses and novel immune pathways associated with pathogenesis, 3) evaluate alterations in the host microbiome and impact on disease pathology and 4) to use pre-clinical models to evaluate vaccines and therapeutics in people living with HIV.

Dr. O’Connor completed her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley and worked for several years under the mentorship of Dr. Scott Wong at the VGTI. She received her PhD in Immunology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth under the mentorship of Dr. William Green, where she studied innate immune mechanisms contributing to LP-BM5 murine retroviral pathogenesis and immunodeficiency. She completed her postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Deborah Fuller at the University of Washington and evaluated pre-clinical nucleic acid vaccines against HIV, ZIKV, HBV, and SARS-CoV-2. Currently, she Research Assistant Professor at the University of Washington in the Department of Microbiology and a Core Scientist at the Washington National Primate Research Center.