Dr. Rachael Parks ’15 Conducts COVID-19 Antibody Research

From her youth, Dr. Rachael Parks ’15 knew she loved the sciences. Growing up in Athens, Ga., Parks would tag along with her veterinarian dad as he worked. Naturally curious, one question always crept up in Parks’ mind: “I always wanted to know why something was happening,” she reflects.

In high school, Parks had her first research lab experience through a science program called “UGA Young Dawgs.”

“It opened my eyes,” she said.

Staying Curious

Parks was a biology major when she arrived at PC.

“I loved the small liberal arts experience. Having that access to professors and small classrooms helped me thrive as a student,” she said. “I feel like my skills at PC were tested beyond a book.”

While at PC, Parks continued thinking about opportunities in research. She considered how many people know doctors and nurses, but it dawned on her that, “a lot of us don’t really know scientists.” She landed a summer internship at Washington University in St. Louis. Following graduation from PC, Parks went on to grad school at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Parks quickly found scientific research feeding her natural curiosity.

“In research you have a lot more flexibility to ask questions,” she said.

Research at a Renowned Cancer Research Center

While a student at the University of Washington, her doctoral advisor was a faculty member at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. She was struck by the fact that 35 million people still live with HIV around the world, but she adds, “because we live in a privileged society, we don’t see it.”

Parks’ area of focus was HIV vaccines aiming to elicit an antibody response.

“If you have those antibodies circulating in your body, they can potentially protect you from infection,” she said.

Parks finished her Ph.D. in August of 2020, during the peak of the pandemic. Since the Fred Hutchinson lab that she had been working in already specialized in antibody research, it quickly pivoted to focusing on antibodies which target the virus that causes COVID-19, or SARS-CoV-2.

During those six months of working on COVID-19 research, she reflects, “It was a huge change. It felt like everything we did was important. We worked around the clock. My graduate lab was a team, and everyone had their piece. As soon as I finished my piece, I would hand it off to the next person so we could keep it moving.”

Looking Ahead

Now Parks’ role has shifted back to HIV research. As she looks ahead and considers the question about how she is serving others through her work, she says, “I feel like there’s so much potential to make people’s lives better with vaccines. I’m an optimist. I want to do science because it’s interesting, but I also want it to have an application—have some real-life importance, and that’s why I love working on vaccines and infectious disease.”

As she continues her postdoctoral research work at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Parks hopes that pandemic’s spotlight on the sciences may encourage other curious minds to serve people through research in the future.