May 20th, 2026
Mia Faerch was invited to present at the Cold Spring Harbor Retrovirus annual meeting in New York with her talk titled, “Probing Lenacapavir Induced Gag Lattice Pre-Maturation.”
May 11th-15th, 2026
We are pleased to share that our fellows gave excellent presentations for the 2026 American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) annual meeting in Boston, MA.
- On May 14th, Karthik Gottimukkala gave the oral presentation, “Engineered cell-derived nanoparticles incorporating CD20 scFv and Nipah fusion proteins for targeted gene delivery.”
- On May 13th, Kurt Berckmueller gave the oral presentation, “Rational design of Nipah Virus (NiV) envelope proteins for specific and efficient gene delivery to CD7+ T cells and CD20+ B cells.”
- On May 12th, Jerry Lu gave the oral presentation, “Engineering Lentiviral Vectors for Efficient In Vivo Transduction of Hematopoietic Stem Cells in Hemophilia A Gene Therapy.”
May 11th, 2026
Bruce Torbett was invited to present “Knocking at the door: Improving cellular entry” at the “Innovations in targeting and detargeting to enhance the viral gene therapy” session, at the 2026 American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) annual meeting in Boston, MA.
April 20th, 2026
Congratulations to Rowan Floyd, who was accepted into the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Internship at the University of California, San Franciso! They will start their work at their new lab in late June 2026.
April 8th, 2026
Lidiia Gagarina was invited to present her poster, “Development of novel CD8 binders for in vivo delivered gene therapies,” at the Fred Huch Cancer Center Translational Science and Therapeutics Retreat. Congratulations!
February 27th, 2026
We are excited to report that Mia Faerch’s proposal for a New Investigator Award from the UW/Fred Hutch Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) Developmental Core, was approved for funding. Title: “Impact of Lenacapavir-Induced Gag Lattice Remodelingon Host Factor Engagement During HIV-1 Assembly.” Congratulations, Mia!
February 19th, 2026
We are proud to share that Jessica Albert has been accepted into the Molecular and Cellular Biology PhD program at the University of Washington. They will be starting in Fall 2026. Congratulations!
February 5th, 2026
Mia Faerch was invited to present her talk, “Probing Lenacapavir Induced Gag Lattice Pre-Maturation” at the B-HIVE Face-to-Face Meeting at Emory University in Atlanta, GA.
November 6th, 2025
Torbett Lab is thrilled to announce that PhD candidate Valentina Grillo-Alvarado has been selected by the American Society of Hematology (ASH) to receive the 2025 Hematology Inclusion Pathway (HIP) Graduate Student Award. This highly competitive award recognizes emerging leaders who are dedicated to advancing hematology research. [SCRI Feature article] Congratulations!
October 17th, 2025
Torbett Lab Graduate Student Elizabeth Platin presented a poster titled “Partners in Crime: Unveiling the Molecular Functions of Host-Factors during HIV-1 Gag-mediated Assembly and Viral Packaging” at the 2025 University of Washington Pathobiology Program Retreat. Congratulations!
September 29th, 2025
The Torbett Lab welcomes Jerry Lu, a Fellow joining us via the Invent@SC program. His research interests include viral and non-viral gene therapy. Welcome to SCRI!
September 24-27th, 2025
Bruce Torbett was invited to present “Application of Long-Read Sequencing to Follow Individual HIV-1s in the “Swarm” in Blood of People with HIV and Viral Transcripts During Latency” at the Immunovirology Masterclass, Island of Tinos, Greece.
September 16th, 2025
Jessica Albert gave an oral presentation, “Bridging the Bioinformatic Gap for Analyzing Retroviral Splicing in the Context of Long-read RNA Sequencing of HIV-1” at the annual Brothman Baty Institute’s 2025 Long-Read Sequencing Symposium at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Congratulations!
August 1st, 2025
The Torbett Lab welcomes Karthik Gottimukkala, a Fellow joining us via the Invent@SC program. His research interests include nanoparticles, non-viral vectors, and gene therapy. Welcome to SCRI!
July 1st, 2025
Congratulations to Val Grillo Alvarado who received a 2-year Graduate Fellowship from the American Society of Hematology!
June 23-24th, 2025
Mia Faerch was invited to present “Lenacapavir and Analogs Disrupts the Late Stages of the HIV-1 Lifecycle by Inducing Premature-Capsid Lattice Formation During Gag Assembly” at the annual NIAID HIV Structure Virtual Meeting at Bethesda, MD. Congratulations!
June 16th, 2025
The Torbett Lab welcomes Liz Platin, a Pathobiology Graduate Student, who will be joining us to undertake their thesis research studies. Welcome to SCRI!
June 16th, 2025
The Torbett Lab welcomes Lidiia Gagarina, a M3D Graduate Student, who will be joining us and Chris Peterson (Fred Hutch) Group to undertake her thesis research studies. Welcome to SCRI!
May 16th, 2025
Rithika Sivakumar, a UW undergraduate, presented a poster on “Evaluating the Effect of Lenacapavir and Analogs on HIV-1 Capsid Assembly” at the annual University of Washington Undergraduate Symposium at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Congratulations!
May 16th, 2025
Rowan Floyd, a UW undergraduate, presented a poster on “Determining the Impact of the Nuclear Export Pathway on HIV-1 Ribonucleoprotein Composition” at the annual University of Washington Undergraduate Symposium at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Congratulations!