Affiliation: NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Dr. Kristen L. Lokken-Toyli is a post-doctoral fellow in Dr. Jeffrey Weiser’s laboratory in the Department of Microbiology at New York University Grossman School of Medicine. She received her PhD in Microbiology from the University of California Davis where she studied how immunodeficiencies impair innate immune responses and promote non-typhoidal Salmonella infection. Her current research is focused on elucidating age-dependent mechanisms that mediate susceptibility to respiratory infections in children. Specifically, she is investigating how age impacts mucosal immune responses in the nasopharynx during colonization by prevalent upper respiratory pathogens, such as Streptococcus pneumoniae.