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Carrie A. Cowardin, PhD (she/her/hers)

Associate Professor
University of Virginia School of Medicine
Charlottesville, VA, United States

Carrie A. Cowardin, PhD is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Virginia. She obtained her PhD at UVA with Dr. William Petri studying the intestinal immune response to Clostridium difficile infection. She went on to postdoc with Dr. Jeffrey Gordon at Washington University in St. Louis, where she explored the ability of the gut microbiome to influence immune and skeletal development in a model of infant undernutrition. This work led to an NICHD K99/R00 Pathway to Independence award and fostered her interest in understanding the complex syndrome of linear growth stunting in children. She was recruited to UVA as the strategic hire for the University’s Microbiome Initiative in 2020, and her NICHD R01-funded laboratory in the Child Health Research Center focuses on understanding how the gut microbiota during pregnancy and early postnatal life set the stage for lifelong immunity. She currently mentors three PhD students, a postdoctoral fellow, and two undergraduates, and serves on numerous trainee thesis and scholarship oversight committees. She is also a member of the University’s Steering Committee on Women in Medicine and Science and serves on the editorial board of Discovery Immunology. She has authored numerous publications in high impact journals and was recognized with the Distinguished Achievement Award in Biomedical Sciences by the University of Virginia Medical Alumni Association.

Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose.

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