Student Spotlight: Timothy Davenport

Timothy “Tim” Davenport is from Farmington, Connecticut and received two undergraduate degrees (in Microbiology and Agricultural and Applied Economics) from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Or as he says, he majored in “germs and money.”

He gained extensive research experience while at UW-Madison, helping screen for antimicrobial compounds produced by members of the human nasal-oral microbiome in the lab of Cameron Currie in the Department of Bacteriology, and working in the  Department of Genetics under the mentorship of Patrick Masson to investigate phenotypic variability in plant gravitropism using the model plant species Arabidopsis thaliana and Brachypodium distachyon. He also worked as an undergraduate assistant in a general chemistry lab.

In addition, after graduation in 2022 he joined the lab of Ya-Chi Ho at Yale University, who characterizes the reservoir of HIV-1-infected cells to guide cure strategies. Davenport designed parallel experiments to support a bioinformatic analysis conducted by a postdoc in the lab. The work was published in the journal Immunity as part of a study profiling latent and transcriptionally active HIV-1-infected cells from people living with HIV-1.

When deciding on a PhD program, “I was ultimately won over by Duke when I saw the program would support my research interests (through department and school-led funding opportunities) and my wellbeing as a graduate student (through programs such as the BioCoRE fellowship),” he said.

In addition, he was attracted to Duke faculty members’ infectious disease research that focuses on molecular perspectives to understand microbial pathogenesis. He also liked the fact that Duke offers enrichment opportunities such as the Duke Scholars in Molecular Medicine program, which will allow him to gain hands-on experience in clinical areas related to his thesis work.

Davenport is a racket sport enthusiast. “Tennis, squash, pickleball — I'm there,” he said. He has also started running and joined the Bull City Run Club, a group that runs in downtown Durham every Wednesday. “The club was a great way to make some new friends who also share this hobby,” he said.