Amya Covington

 

Hi everyone! My name is Mya Covington. I was born and raised in Rome, Georgia with the help of my very large family. I attended the University of Georgia with the intent to broadly study Biology for my undergraduate degree even though I have always been interested in the smaller side of life. I continuously questioned, “how exactly do pathogens cause disease in much bigger organisms?” Early into my undergraduate degree, I was able to do microbial work with anaerobic methanogens and that further solidified my deep interest and curiosity in microorganisms. I then shifted my research to plant genetics studying evolutionary changes in phylloquinone biosynthetic genes between photosynthetic and holoparasitic plants using an expression system in Escherichia coli. I have never put myself into a box when it comes to research because my goal is to be a well-rounded scientist, and I got to develop my passion for molecular biology, plants, and bacteria during this experience.

I graduated with my degree in Microbiology and was unsure of the next steps I would need to take to become a well-trained biomedical scientist. With the much-appreciated guidance from my PI at the time, Dr. CJ Tsai, I was introduced to the PREP program at UGA. During my year, I was introduced formally to infectious disease research as I had always wanted. I worked this year on a project that investigated how mitogen-activated protein kinase inflammatory signaling contributes to the fitness of Toxoplasma gondii. At the end of my PREP year, I can see tremendous growth from initial unsureness in my science and education, but I exited the program with so much knowledge and support going into my graduate school career.

I am currently in the Integrated Life Sciences PhD program at the University of Georgia. Drs. Erin and Kim spent a very dedicated year advising and helping us develop the tools to succeed in graduate school. I feel more than prepared to find a dissertation lab that offers me the mentorship, environment, and science I need. As I complete my lab rotations, I am broad in my search spreading across multiple departments such as infectious diseases, microbiology, and genetics.