Dr. Paula Kavathas

Biography

Paula Kavathas is a Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Immunobiology at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs. She earned her B.A. in American Institutions from the University of Wisconsin, where she wrote a thesis on the role of Science in America during the 1960s. She subsequently obtained her Ph.D. in Genetics from the Department of Genetics, which was founded in 1921 in Wisconsin. Her research has focused on genetic analysis of the MHC region, working under Dr. Robert DeMars. Kavathas also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University with Dr. Leonard Herzenberg, where she developed a novel approach to cloning genes that encode cell surface proteins using fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). Her current research at Yale explores the functional relevance of four isoforms of the CD8b protein in humans, great apes, and mice, focusing on their differential expression in naive T cells, activated T cells, and memory T cells. The clinical relevance of these isoforms is emphasized in relation to adoptive immunotherapy utilizing T cells.

Research Interests