Marc Theberge

Background

About Marc Theberge

Prior to my time at NIAID’s Vaccine Research Center, I was an undergraduate student studying Cell and Molecular Biology at Tulane University and a baseball player. After suffering a shoulder injury my freshman year, the baseball field no longer held a place for me. With this newfound time, I chose to work in biomedical research labs at Tulane University School of Medicine to complement my coursework. First trained in cancer biology, I cultured thyroid cancer cell lines and analyzed cell viability and protein expression in response to candidate anti-cancer drugs. With my mentor's help, I also wrote a grant which was awarded by the Tulane Center for Engaged Learning and Teaching (CELT). After my time in this lab was completed, I joined a virology/immunology lab down the hall. A Zika virus-related proteomics study was available for me to work on, and I contributed to complete the project. After this, COVID-19 research became the major focus of the lab. Not only did my mentors have their own observational clinical study ongoing, but they also served as site investigators at Tulane Medical Center for multiple investigational trials started by biotech companies. As such, I worked as research staff on each of these protocols, co-authored an additional publication, and found great satisfaction playing a role in large-scale, collaborative science. Stemming from this satisfaction was my decision to pursue a post-baccalaureate fellowship at NIAID’s Vaccine Research Center after my graduation from Tulane. For the past year, I have been working in the Virus Persistence and Dynamics Section studying HIV persistence. My training has largely focused on method development to better analyze specific populations of cells directly from people – something I hope to continue working on throughout my career, regardless of the field. I am now starting a PhD in Medicine (Research) through the National Institutes of Health and the University of Cambridge as an NIH Cambridge Scholar. My thesis work will focus on the molecular biology of HIV latency and persistence.