Jared Evans, PhD, is a new faculty member at UNMC.
- Name: Jared Evans, PhD
- Hometown: Center Valley, Pennsylvania
- Title and department at UNMC: Associate professor, UNMC Department of Pathology and Microbiology
Research/professional interests:
- Molecular virology and evolution
- Countermeasures for emerging biological threats
- Novel single-event microfluidic systems and assay development
How I fell in love with viruses: When I was a freshman in high school, we did a research paper for honors biology class. I picked bacteriophages because they had an interesting structure in the textbook we had. They looked like beautiful little spaceships. The more I learned about them, the more fascinated I became. In college, every time I did a research paper, it was on viruses, and I was always amazed by the beautiful structure and simplicity of these tiny entities that behaved in such complex ways. They could cause great damage to their hosts but also could be used as vectors for medical treatments and research. My advisor recognized my interest and suggested I could actually become a virologist. I joined a very successful lab in grad school that was working on the basic mechanisms of human virus replication, and this began my career in virology. My research on virus replication and emergence, as well as potential interventions, has been tremendously rewarding.
Education:
- Bachelor of Science in biology, The College of New Jersey, Trenton, New Jersey
- PhD in molecular microbiology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York
- Post-doctoral fellow, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego, California
- Post-doctoral fellow, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Memberships:
- American Society for Microbiology
- American Association for the Advancement of Science
- World Society for Virology
Three things people may not know about me:
- I’m an avid road cyclist and Peloton rider.
- I’ve completed multiple tough mudder races.
- I worked at a sewage treatment plant and a pig farm during college.