“Thanks to you, I have the whole world of oral health care
spread out before me.”
Lauren Vitkus studied large things as a civil engineering major
at Brown University. As a dental student, working with her mentor,
Peter Bush, director of the South Campus Instrument Center, she
went small: studying Streptococcus mutans adhesion mechanisms. She
used a novel fixation method for imaging the bacterium with the
center’s newest Hitachi scanning electron
microscope—which she reverently calls
“amazing”—that revealed the strep mutans capsule
in new detail.
Vitkus, who holds a Rosenthal Family Fund Scholarship, is a former
lacrosse star (four-year starter and All-Ivy League player at
Brown) who says being a college athlete taught her time management.
Before she starts her third year, she’s shadowing
specialties. She has the world to choose from, thanks to generous
donors like you.