Lab Members

Graciela Galvez earned a bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology and Women’s Studies at Colgate University. She spent her undergraduate research as a student in Katherine McJunkin’s laboratory where she worked on generating reagents to understand the function of terminal nucleotidyl transferases in the C. elegans germline. After graduating from Colgate, she returned to the NIH for a post-baccalaureate fellowship in Dr. Marc Ghany’s lab. She is researching biomarkers for early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma and cirrhosis and detection of hepatitis flares following withdrawal of antiviral therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis B.

Matthew obtained his bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Virginia. During his undergraduate years, he was involved in research examining lactate during status epilepticus induced by continuous hippocampal stimulation under Dr. Jaideep Kapur as well as public health research comparing outcomes between sublobar resection and lobectomy in non-small cell lung cancer patients under Dr. Rajesh Balkrishnan. At the NIH, Matthew is currently examining the virological signature of silenced cccDNA among HBeAg-negative patients with spontaneous viremia control

Veronica Locker graduated from American University with Bachelors of Science in Biology and a Minor in Public Health. Her undergraduate research focused on the effects of adipocyte microenvironments in bone marrow on the progression of multiple myeloma. Now she is working under Dr. Ghany as a post-baccalaureate fellow exploring the use of AI in identifying new histological features to better understand Hepatitis B pathogenesis.