Background 

Eva is originally from Knoxville, Tennessee and moved to Seattle to get her undergraduate degree in cell and molecular biology from Seattle University. While she was an undergraduate, Eva worked in the Zanis lab to investigate the molecular evolution of selfish genetic elements known as inteins isolated from phycondaviruses and algae species native to the Pacific Northwest. 

Current Research 

In the Malik lab, Eva is continuing to pursue her interest in experimental evolution by working alongside postdoctoral fellow Tamanash Bhattacharya to investigate the evolution of arboviruses, a family of viruses which have arthropod vectors but also infect a wide range of organisms, including mammals. Many arboviruses are also responsible for infecting and causing disease in humans, which makes understanding how they evolve very important for viral prevention and public health. Eva and Tamanash hope to discover how these viruses deal with alternating host immune systems and what evolutionary tradeoffs they must make in order to infect these different hosts.

Interests 

When Eva is not in lab, she loves to spend her free time cooking, thrift shopping, and exploring Seattle with her friends. She also loves stand-up comedy, plants, and weird science facts.