Principal Investigator 

Robert Garcea, MD 

Bob GarceaBob integrates medicine, structural biology, and virology in his study of small DNA viruses. Bob received an A.B. in Chemistry from Harvard College, an M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco, and served his pediatric residency at Stanford. From an early point in his career, he was immersed in both medicine and research, basic studies of virus assembly paralleled his clinical career and interest in developing innovative vaccines. He completed a research fellowship in Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF, a fellowship in Pediatric Oncology at Boston Children’s Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and subsequently was an Assistant then Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. Bob came to the University of Colorado School of Medicine in 1993 as Professor of Pediatrics and served as Chief of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/Bone Marrow Transplantation at Denver Children’s Hospital from 1993 to 2003. Since 2008 he has been a Professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology and a member of the BioFrontiers Program at the University of Colorado Boulder.  

 

 

Research Associates 

Kimberly Erickson, PhD 

KimKim received her BS in Chemistry and Biology from Baker University and her PhD in Molecular Virology from Purdue University. Her research initially as a postdoc in the Garcea lab used electron tomography and molecular genetics to examine the morphology of polyomaviruses during infection. Kim's current role is to provide administrative support and technical input for ongoing projects. Kim enjoys hanging out with her family and two dogs, trail running, snowboarding, and vegetable gardening in her spare time. 

 

 

 

 

Alexandra Holland, PhD 

AlexAlexandra got her BS in Chemical Engineering from UC Berkeley, and her PhD from the University of Washington, Seattle. Her research interests span genetic engineering of bacteria for environmental detoxification (main focus of her PhD work), algal bioreactor designs, developing models to describe (and optimize) algal growth, as well as immunofluorescence in eukaryotic cells. Alexandra likes to spend time in France with her family, hiking in Boulder and cooking.

 

 

 

 

Erika Langsfeld, PhD 

ErikaErika has been involved in the diagnosis and study of small DNA virus infection, particularly HPV, since 2004. Erika earned a BSc in Medical Laboratory Sciences from the University of New Mexico and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Life Sciences with a focus on virology from Northwestern University. After a stint in medical writing, Erika decided she could not stay away from the bench! She now integrates her experience in clinical science to enrich her basic science work on the mechanisms of polyomavirus replication. Erika enjoys cooking, gaming, hiking with her family and cuddling with her cats. 

 

 

 

 

 

Research Assistants 

Hannah Hubert, MSc 

HannahHannah Hubert (hugh-bear) is a PRA in the Garcea lab and is working on the Gates Project to make specific vaccines more thermostable and multivalent. Hannah is originally from Tennessee, Go Vols, and received her bachelor's degree from North Carolina State University. She recently graduated with her Master's from Colorado State University prior to joining the lab. A fun fact about her is that she is a dual citizen of the US and Netherlands and enjoys hiking with her dog Harper. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amber Rauch, BSc 

AmberAmber graduated from the University of New Mexico with a B.S. in Biochemistry. She has a wide range of experience in both industry and academia spanning over 5 years. Amber is now working on projects related to developing thermostable, single-dose vaccines for a variety of viruses. She enjoys playing with her Samoyed/husky mix Razor.