Gillian McClennen, BS

Graduate Student

Gillian McClennen was born and raised in Atlanta, GA, before moving to Boston to pursue her undergraduate degree at Northeastern University. There, she majored in Biochemistry with a minor in Data Science. Her pursuit of a research career started at the Chai Laboratory, studying the role of pulcherriminic acid (PA) in signaling, metal homeostasis, and biofilm dissociation of Bacillus subtilis. She received multiple institutional grants to pursue this work and completed her thesis on the subject, titled “The role of YhjH, a novel transcription factor, in pulcherrimin regulation and cell death in Bacillus subtilis”. During her undergraduate career, she was fortunate to pursue further research through a six-month co-op opportunity researching a lipoprotein therapeutic platform for neurodegenerative disease at Kisbee Therapeutics, and two global experiences researching the phylogenetics of Blacktip sharks in Costa Rica and the composition of permafrost-affected soil microbiomes in Sion, Switzerland. After graduating from Northeastern University, she joined the lab of Dr. Kevin Gozzi at the Rowland Institute at Harvard. There, she investigated horizontal gene transfer of the environmental bacterium Caulobacter crescentus through its production of gene transfer agents (GTAs), which are phage-like particles that can spread packages of the bacterial genome in response to stress. At the University of Virginia, she is excited to explore the role of bacterial signaling molecules in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Outside of the lab, Gillian enjoys taking care of her cat Hippo and finding ways to spend time outdoors in the beautiful Charlottesville area.