Amanda Elyssa Ruiz, a third year Ph.D. student in the Pathobiology Graduate Program, has been featured in Forbes' online magazine for her continuing work in the Kurtis lab on the parasite schistosoma japonicum.

Amanda and the Kurtis lab have worked to develop a screening strategy for vaccine candidates which identifies the antigens on the parasite and working to find potential vaccines to protect against schistosomiasis, a disease that impacts over 250 million people every year, making it the second most socio-economically devastating parasitic disease after malaria.

Amanda Elyssa is a first-generation American with parents from Colombia and Guatemala and is an active member in the Brown IMSD community. She is also the president of the Brown SACNAS chapter.