Lauren E. Kinkead BS, PhD

Lauren was raised in Omaha, Nebraska and is the oldest of three children born to Steve and Teri Kinkead. She attended Central High School where her interest in science began. After high school, Lauren enrolled at Minnesota State University (MNSU), Mankato to pursue a degree in nursing. The following summer, however, she realized that the classes she enjoyed the most that year were the first-year science courses required for her major. She decided to focus more on taking science courses and exploring careers in that field.

Lauren was accepted into the Summer Undergraduate Research Program during her sophomore year at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). She began working in Dr. Paul Fey’s laboratory at UNMC the following May; her research focused on phenotypic variation in Staphylococcus epidermidis TCA cycle mutants. After returning to school, she declared a major in microbiology. The following summer she returned to the Fey laboratory at UNMC and continued studies of the macromolecular synthesis operon in S. epidermidis. She also spent three semesters in the laboratory of Dr. Timothy Secott at MNSU examining the viability of dormant, VBNC Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis. After graduation, Lauren joined Dr. Fey’s laboratory at UNMC as a laboratory technologist and continued research on the effects of TCA cycle mutations on antibiotic susceptibility in S. epidermidis.