Lauren graduated from Valparaiso University with a BS in Biology and then from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with an MS in Cancer Biology, gathering first-hand information about thyroid cancer along the way.  She was first exposed to the world of flow cytometry while studying the role of regulatory T cells in pediatric allergies, asthma, and autoimmune diseases; multicolor immunophenotyping assays became her specialty. After that, she worked in industry for two years optimizing the sex-based sorting of porcine sperm and helped open a lab in Canada to train sort operators in the implementation of that procedure.

She worked for the UW Carbone Cancer Center Flow Cytometry Core Laboratory for six years where her favorite flow cytometry related activities were high-dimensional panel design, teaching the Intro to Flow lecture series, giving educational outreach talks about a variety of topics, and creating multi-core pipelines.

She has been a Senior Scientist at Elephas since October or 2022 and is the flow cytometry lead.  She designs high dimensional flow panels, optimizes assays, and advises on immunology topics to help move the technology forward towards a predictive and personalized approach to treating cancer with immunotherapies.

In her free time, she enjoys cooking, learning about wine, and watching all kinds of nerdy television with her husband and her 13 year old cat, Bessie.