MMI Assistant Professor Elizabeth Thompson Studies Human Immunology, Vaccination, and Infection

Elizabeth Thompson, assistant professor in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, studies human immunology in the context of vaccination and infection. Thompson combines immunologic and metabolic approaches to identify molecular determinants of vaccine efficacy in diverse human populations. She aims to uncover fundamental aspects of human cellular biology while contributing to rational vaccine design and therapeutic interventions.

Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Thompson earned a PhD in immunology and vaccinology from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Periods of her PhD were spent at the Vaccine Research Center at the NIH under the mentorship of Karin Loré and Robert Seder. She conducted her postdoctoral studies first in the lab of Jonathan Powell, MD, PhD, in the oncology department at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine studying immunometabolic response to immunotherapy. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, she refocused her efforts to study immunometabolism in COVID-19 infection and vaccination and completed her postdoctoral studies in the lab of Andrea Cox, MD, PhD, in the department of infectious diseases also at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. 

Thompson has published close to 40 research articles and reviews.