I am currently a 4th year Ph.D. candidate at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) studying how the immune system responds to Bordetella pertussis, the bacterium that causes whooping cough. Waning immunity to existing pertussis vaccines has contributed significantly to pertussis prevalence and reinfection globally. My thesis research investigates how Triggering Receptors Expressed on Myeloid Cells- 1 (TREM-1), an innate inflammation-amplifying receptor shapes long-term immunity in the lung. I’m particularly interested in how early innate immune signals influence adaptive immunity and memory recall. Previously, I completed my Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Biotechnology from Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT), India. During this time, I worked extensively in microbiology and immunology, gaining hands-on experience in microbial techniques, cell culture assays, and immunoassays. Currently as part of my doctoral training, I work on live infection mouse models and conduct routine microbial, molecular, and immunological experimentation and data analysis on harvested cells and tissues. Large-scale data analysis is another parallel branch of my thesis work which has provided me with robust expertise in bulk and single cell RNA sequencing analysis using R and Python. Going forward, I want to continue to assess why immunity fails over time and how we can design better, longer-lasting vaccines to improve protection.