Contact Information
Summary
Allison grew up in Delaware County, Philadelphia, and graduated summa cum laude from the College of William & Mary in 2026 with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Chemistry.
Her undergraduate research was wide-ranging, including a field research course at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, where she studied carbon flow in estuaries. She conducted immunology research and clinical shadowing at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, sparking her interest in microbiology. At William & Mary, she joined Dr. Mark Forsyth’s lab to investigate the role of a non-coding RNA in Helicobacter pylori virulence.
During a semester abroad in Granada, Spain, she took Spanish classes and taught local students. A formative internship at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab enabled Allison to research plant-bacteria interactions and engineer Pseudomonas putida to boost soil carbon storage.
After her fellowship at the NIH, she plans to pursue a Ph.D. in microbiology.
Research Statement
At the NIH, Allison studies host-skin microbe interactions related to atopic dermatitis, primary immunodeficiencies, and antibiotic use. She employs metagenomic and culturing techniques to explore how the host shapes and is shaped by the skin microbiome.
Education
College of William & Mary
B.Sc., Biology (2026)
Experience
Undergraduate Microbiology Researcher
College of William & Mary, VA (2024-2026)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory SULI Internship
LBNL, CA (Summer 2025)