Lauren Oldfield is an assistant professor in the Synthetic Biology department. Her diverse research interests include viral synthetic genomics for large DNA viruses and investigating the role of the microbiome in injury after pollution exposure.

In her postdoctoral research at the JCVI, she worked with Dr. Sanjay Vashee to develop synthetic genomics tools to improve researchers’ ability to manipulate herpesviruses. Through a strong collaboration with Dr. Prashant Desai they successfully implemented a novel synthetic genomics method to clone and assemble the HSV-1 genome from smaller overlapping genomic fragments and reconstitute infectious virus in tissue culture. By cloning the HSV-1 genome in fragments, the team can rapidly engineer changes to these fragments in parallel and reassemble full length genomes with a combination of mutant and wild-type parts. Dr. Oldfield is now working to expand these synthetic genomics tools to additional viruses and to new scientific and medical problems. Drs. Vashee and Oldfield also are working with collaborators to expand this system to other herpesviruses, including Epstein-Barr virus and human cytomegalovirus, and to viruses that are important agricultural pathogens.

She was also involved in other virus projects at JCVI studying Zika virus, rhinovirus, and enterovirus D68, and initiatives to look at the viral component of the microbiome and its contributions to cancer. As a graduate student under the direction of Dr. Graham Hatfull, a world renown bacteriophage expert, Dr. Oldfield studied several aspects of bacteriophage gene expression using RNA-Seq, promoter assays and characterizing the genetic switch for lytic versus lysogenic growth.

Dr. Oldfield is also a fellow in the Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative, which aims to provide education and networking to scientists and policy experts from academia, industry, nonprofits and government on issues of biosecurity.

Ongoing pilot projects will investigate the effects of ozone and particulate matter, respectively, on the microbiome in mouse model systems. Understanding the contribution of the microbiome may lead to diagnostics or treatments to help mitigate the effects of pollution exposure.

Dr. Oldfield received her PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Pittsburgh and her BS in Biology from the University of Akron.

Publications