Rebecca M. Lynch, PhD
Associate Professor
Rebecca M. Lynch, Ph.D., joined the GW Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Tropical Medicine in February 2016 as an Assistant Professor. She currently works as an Associate Professor and PI of the Lynch Lab.
Teresa Murphy
Teresa is a PhD candidate on the Microbiology and Immunology track in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences program. She graduated from Penn State University in the fall of 2019 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Biology with an Immunology focus. During her time at Penn State, she studied the pathway of stress erythropoiesis in murine models with Dr. Robert Paulson and held two internships at the Hepatitis B Foundation. She joined the Lynch lab in 2021, and is currently studying how HIV specific broadly neutralizing antibodies drive viral escape and the associated fitness costs as well as how mutations to antibody constant regions affect antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity. The former project earned her a spot on the MITM department’s inaugural HIV Persistence, Comorbidities and Treatment T32 grant. She also serves as an ambassador for the IBS program and is a board member for the Student Organization for Biomedical Scientists at GW.
Meagan Kelly
Meagan graduated with B.S in Biology from Stockton University. Her interest in infectious disease research began at Massachusetts General Hospital where she worked on developing vaccines for Cholera and Shigella infection. She recently joined the Lynch Lab as the Laboratory Manager and is excited to become an expert in virus production and running HIV neutralization assays.
Gabe Galeotos
Gabe is PhD student on the Microbiology and Immunology track in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences (IBS) program. He graduated from the University of New Haven in 2022 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Biology. He joined the Lynch Lab in 2024 and is currently studying the effect autologous antibodies have on HIV escape from broadly neutralizing antibodies at the CD4 binding site. This project was also granted the HIV Persistence, Comorbidities, and Treatment T32 Grant.
Kaitlyn Gibbons
Kaitlyn is an undergraduate student at GW majoring in Cellular and Molecular Biology with minors in both Public Health and Human Anatomy. Her interest in infectious diseases started while working in a West Nile Virus testing laboratory in Chicago. Joining in the Fall of 2023, Kaitlyn works as a student lab assistant in the Lynch Lab. Using transformation processes, she maintains the stocks of DNA in the lab used for various research purposes. Kaitlyn plans to use her passion for various infectious diseases and their antibody responses to obtain a PhD in the future.
Tommy DeStefanis
Tommy is a PhD student on the Microbiology and Immunology track in the Integrated Biomedical Sciences program. He graduated from Villanova University in 2023 with a Bachelors of Science in Biochemistry and Art History. At Villanova he studied the evolution of transcriptional stochasticity in Sacchromyces Cervisiae under Dr. Peter Palenchar. He joined the Lynch Lab in 2024 and works on understanding how viral escape occurs in clinical trial participants infused with CD4bs bNAbs. He received the T32 in HIV Persistence, Treatment, and Comorbidities to support this project.