Everlynn Le
Biology Major, Chemistry Minor
Pronouns: She/her
Current Research Project: Currently, I am interested in the field of immunology in relation to immune cell response and functioning, such as T-cell exhaustion, as a means of furthering understanding rare immunodeficient conditions and how novel immunotherapeutic treatments can be further optimized. I work at the Tumor Immune Microenvironment Laboratory overseen by Dr. Erika Crosby, primarily focused on studying obesity-driven changes in immune system response, leveraging immune assays to determine reduced immune functioning and immunotherapy efficacy on triple-negative breast cancer.
How she got involved with research: Gaining insight and advice on how to get involved in research early on as a freshman through attending events with Peer Success Leaders and URS SAC, I searched for research labs on Scholars@Duke with keywords based on what I was interested in, such as “epigenetic,” “biomarkers,” and “immunology.” I then cold emailed and scheduled meetings with several principal investigators to gauge if I was interested in joining the lab by assessing their research projects and lab environment. Dr. Erika Crosby was especially welcoming toward my journey in starting research, and I learned a variety of fundamental techniques–from basic pipetting to tissue culture–during my first semester. Armed with this experience I obtained, I partook in a highly selective summer internship at the Nguyen Lab of UC Berkeley Innovative Genomics Institute, designing an assay to assess T-cell exhaustion from gene editing via surface staining flow cytometry and how delivery mechanisms, particularly electroporation and lipid nanoparticles, may have implications on long-term immune functioning. As of September 2025, I will have accumulated over 400+ hours of research within my first year, and I am excited to take the further leap of exploring an honors thesis based on my research project at Duke!