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Congratulations to the April Undergraduate Researcher of the Month, Kiersten Taylor! 

Kiersten Taylor is a senior majoring in Molecular and Cellular Biology with a minor in Chemistry. During her undergraduate career, she has worked on multiple research projects across public health, epidemiology, and chemical informatics, with a focus on understanding disease at both the molecular and population levels. 

Kiersten began her research journey studying tickborne diseases in the public health and epidemiology lab of Dr. Kerry Clark. During her time there, she contributed to a collaborative project that identified a novel strain of Borrelia, leading to a preprint publication currently under review. She later led an independent project examining tickborne pathogens in Northeast Florida, identifying multiple organisms, including a novel strain of Babesia not previously reported in the state. She has presented this work at several conferences, including the Florida Undergraduate Research Conference (FURC), ARISE, and U-GLIDE, where she received the Best Poster Award in the Health Sciences category in 2025. 

More recently, Kiersten transitioned into chemical informatics research in the ³ÉÈË´óƬDepartment of Chemistry & Biochemistry with Dr. Stuart Chalk and Professor Elizabeth Carey, where she leads the data science component of a project focused on chemotherapy resistance in pediatric osteosarcoma. In this role, she develops computational workflows, analyzes transcriptomic data, and contributes to reproducible research practices. She also serves as a teaching assistant for Organic Chemistry I and II courses and is an active member of UNF’s American Chemical Society student chapter. 

Kiersten shares that her favorite part of research is the process of discovery and collaboration. Through her experiences, she has developed a wide range of both technical and interpersonal skills, including experience in PCR, gel electrophoresis, DNA purification, bioinformatics workflows, transcriptomic analysis, and scientific data visualization. Kiersten reflects that she has also learned how to write reproducible protocols, manage large datasets, communicate complex results clearly, and how to stay persistent when experiments or analyses don’t go as planned. 

She encourages students interested in undergraduate research to be proactive, ask questions, and to connect with potential mentors. After graduating this May, Kiersten plans to pursue a Ph.D. in bioinformatics or chemical informatics. She will first complete a postbaccalaureate fellowship with the Florida Bureau of Public Health Laboratories, continuing to build her research experience and contribute to public health efforts.