Tiara Tillis

Tiara received her B.A. in Biochemistry and Educational Studies from Swarthmore College where she conducted research in two microbiology laboratories and completed her first publication. After graduating, she spent two years researching small proteins at the National Institutes of Health as a Developing Talent Scholar with a publication in progress. In 2023, she entered Emory University’s BCDB Ph.D. program as an IMSD and Centennial Scholar Fellow and joined Dr. Dunham’s lab in 2024. Her project utilizes techniques in biochemistry, microbiology, and structural biology with the goal of providing important insights into how gene expression is regulated in response to antibiotics and thus promote antibiotic resistance in clinically relevant bacteria.