Internship Title: Valley Fever Disease Severity Analysis and Community Outreach Project
Department: Molecular and Cell Biology
Mentor Name: Katrina Hoyer
Under supervision of Dr. Hoyer and a senior graduate student, the student intern will identify correlatives to Valley fever disease severity by performing retrospective analysis of published research and clinical data. The student will explore and compare immune cell activation, preexisting medical conditions, and exposure to pollutants in patient case studies to identify potential associations between these parameters and Valley fever disease severity. Intern will also compare data from community acquired pneumonia and lung cancer as patients are often misdiagnosed with these diseases during early Valley fever infection. Finally, the intern will participate in our lab Valley fever outreach by meeting (via zoom) with regional elected officials and disease group advocates and writing Valley fever research updates for our website.
