Matt is a research fellow in the Gaiha lab. He received a BS in Biochemistry and an MS in Marine and Environmental Biology from the University of Southern California (USC) and performed his undergraduate research on DNA replication in the laboratory of Susan Forsburg. Afterwards, he completed a postbaccalaureate fellowship at the NIH where he studied innate immune responses to Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax, in Stephen Leppla’s group at NIAID. He then completed his PhD in Biology at MIT and did his thesis research on RNA interference pathways with David Bartel at the Whitehead Institute. A newcomer to the field of adaptive immunity, he is excited to learn more about T cells and how to induce robust CD8+ T cell responses against a number of pathogens. In his spare time, he likes running, hiking, biking, and dreaming of having the time and money to do triathlons.