Laura K. Harris, Ph.D.
Michigan State University
Laura K. Harris, Ph.D., is an accomplished medical biologist and award-winning educator with over 20 years of diverse experience with expertise in infectious disease, immunology, neurology, astrobiology and oncology.
She earned her Ph.D. in biomedical informatics from Rutgers, State University of New Jersey (2020), and 2 M.S. degrees—cell and molecular biology (2009) and microbiology (2003)—after her B.S. in microbiology (2000) from Michigan State University (MSU). Harris started her career in the industry working as a research associate and medical writer at various stages throughout the pre-clinical and clinical drug development process in and alongside pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer. She then settled into academia where she rose to assistant professor/science laboratory coordinator at Davenport University before becoming director of training for the Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research at MSU.
While in academia, Harris discovered her passion for bioinformatics research and established Harris Interdisciplinary Research specializing in next-generation sequencing -omics data meta-analysis, genome annotation improvement and protein modeling. She currently maintains adjunct professor positions at several institutions while providing bioinformatics research and medical writing services worldwide.
Harris has received several honors for her leadership excellence, including LeadLikeAWoman by the Michigan Chamber of Commerce (2019) and honorary membership to the National Society of Leadership and Success, Sigma Alpha Pi (2018).
Harris is inspired daily by her husband and their 2 daughters. In her free time, she likes to train for half-marathons and sprint triathlons, help her daughters with extra-curricular school science projects and play video games.
She earned her Ph.D. in biomedical informatics from Rutgers, State University of New Jersey (2020), and 2 M.S. degrees—cell and molecular biology (2009) and microbiology (2003)—after her B.S. in microbiology (2000) from Michigan State University (MSU). Harris started her career in the industry working as a research associate and medical writer at various stages throughout the pre-clinical and clinical drug development process in and alongside pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer. She then settled into academia where she rose to assistant professor/science laboratory coordinator at Davenport University before becoming director of training for the Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research at MSU.
While in academia, Harris discovered her passion for bioinformatics research and established Harris Interdisciplinary Research specializing in next-generation sequencing -omics data meta-analysis, genome annotation improvement and protein modeling. She currently maintains adjunct professor positions at several institutions while providing bioinformatics research and medical writing services worldwide.
Harris has received several honors for her leadership excellence, including LeadLikeAWoman by the Michigan Chamber of Commerce (2019) and honorary membership to the National Society of Leadership and Success, Sigma Alpha Pi (2018).
Harris is inspired daily by her husband and their 2 daughters. In her free time, she likes to train for half-marathons and sprint triathlons, help her daughters with extra-curricular school science projects and play video games.