Reaching Others University at Buffalo - The State University of New York
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Lauren Vitkus

Lauren Vitkus

“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.