Elizabeth Taglauer

My background, at best, is like a patchwork quilt. I have grown up all over the Deep South and finished high school in the sleepy little town of Mountain Home, AR. My junior year I took an AP biology course that opened my eyes to the wonders of cell biology and genetics, and the rest is history. I headed off to college at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, MO where I majored in Cell and Molecular Biology. While in college I explored both medicine and research areas during my summers. The summer of 1999 I worked as an ER technician and the summer of 2000 I worked at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, CA helping develop new microscopy techniques for breast cancer studies using a soft x-ray microscope. I graduated college and while waiting to be accepted to medical school, I packed my bags and went to Paris France with a Fulbright Fellowship at the Marie Curie Institute working in an X-Ray crystallography laboratory. While in France, I was accepted into this wonderful program and I have been pleased with it ever since. For my dissertation research, I will be involved in further characterizing the immunological function of key B7 co-receptor molecules within placental tissue. The B7 family of co-receptors provides an important regulatory mechanism for the immune system, and certain members may be critical for immunological control at the maternal-fetal interface.

You can usually find me studying at one of the many lovely coffee shops that Kansas City has to offer (particularly the ones with a good strong dark-roast brew) and when I am not studying I like taking long runs on hilly roads, talking to my very spread-out family and friends, or reading a really great book. I also take any opportunity I can to go dancing and throw dinner parties. I am very honored and pleased to be a part of such a challenging and supportive MD/PhD program and please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about what its like here...we can chat over coffee :).