Kristen L. Hoek, Ph.D.

I was born in Vermont, but my family moved to the Nashville area when I was four. I received my B.S. degree from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. After college, I stayed in Birmingham and pursued graduate studies in the laboratory of Dr. Prescott Atkinson at UAB. Upon obtaining my Ph.D. degree in 2003 studying the role of Mycoplasma infections in childhood asthma, I moved back to Nashville and joined the laboratory of Wasif Khan at Vanderbilt, where I investigated B cell signaling and development. I then did another short postdoctoral appointment in the lab of Dr. Eric Sebzda, investigating the role of the transcription factor KLF2 in B cell development and function. In 2011, I joined the lab of Dr. Andrew Link, to work in a large clinical trail aimed at defining the transcriptional proteomics profiles of different human cell types after influenza vaccination. In 2017, I joined the Olivares-Villagomez lab, where I am currently investigating the role of granzymes in intestinal inflammation.