In 2014, Dr. Harris-Tryon joined the Department of Dermatology at UTSW and returned to the bench as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Lora Hooper, an internationally recognized leader in mechanistic studies of the host /microbe interface. Dr. Harris-Tryon expanded the focus of the lab to include skin. Though insight has been gained into what organisms reside on the surface of the skin, little is known about how these organisms – collectively termed the “microbiota” – impact the immune system. The long-term goal of this work is to understand how the microbiota regulate skin immunity.

Dr. Harris-Tryon is a magna cum laude alumna of Haverford College in Pennsylvania. After completing her undergraduate studies she entered the Johns Hopkins University’s Medical Scientist Training Program. She completed her graduate training in the lab of Charles Lowenstein M.D. and her work linked the expression of an endothelial microRNA play to vascular inflammation.