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Dr. Lauren Fuess

  • Assistant Professor - Biology
Portrait of Dr. Lauren Fuess

Biography and education

Lauren Fuess is an Assistant Professor at Texas State University. She received her BS degree with honors in Marine Biology from the College of Charleston in 2012. From 2012-2013 she served as a Fulbright Full Grant Recipient in Jamaica where she conducted coral ecology research. In 2018 she received her doctoral degree from the University of Texas at Arlington; Her doctoral work, supported in part by an NSF graduate research fellowship, was focused on understanding the causes and consequences of variation in immunity amongst Caribbean corals. She then spent two years working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Connecticut, investigating evolution of immunity in an emergent fish-parasite system, supported in part by an American Association of Immunologists Fellowship. Since arriving at Texas State in 2020, Dr. Fuess has built a robust research program studying the roles of symbiotic interactions in cnidarian immunity and the ecology and evolution of these patterns. Her work has been funded by diverse sources such as the National Science Foundation and Florida Department of Environmental Protection. She has received national recognition for her leadership in the fields of ecological immunology from the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology. Furthermore, broad interest in her work has resulted in numerous invited talks and seminars across the country.

Teaching Interests

Research Interests

  • Fuess, Lauren Elizabeth (Principal), Percent Contribution: %90, Bucklin, Carrie Jo (Supporting), Percent Contribution: %10. CAREER: Characterizing the mechanisms linking bleaching recovery to pathogen susceptibility in a model cnidarian system, National Science Foundation, Federal, $676765.5. (Submitted: 2024, Funded: August 2025 - 2030). Grant.
  • Fuess, Lauren Elizabeth (Principal), Sharp, Katherine H (Co-Principal). BRC-BIO: Establishing Astrangia poculata as a study system to understand how multi-partner symbiotic interactions affect pathogen response in cnidarians, National Science Foundation, Federal, $490280. (Submitted: December 2022, Funded: January 2024 - December 2026). Grant.
  • Fuess, Lauren Elizabeth (Principal), Percent Contribution: %50, Gignoux-Wolfsohn, Sarah (Co-Principal), Percent Contribution: %50. RAPID: Leveraging a natural bleaching event to assess links between bleaching and disease, National Science Foundation, Federal, $245384. (Submitted: September 2023, Funded: 2023 - 2025). Grant.
  • Fuess, Lauren Elizabeth, Gabor, Caitlin. Planning: CREST Center in Bioinformatics, National Science Foundation, Federal, $199960. (Submitted: June 2023, Funded: September 2023 - August 2025). Grant.
  • Fuess, Lauren Elizabeth (Principal), Percent Contribution: %30, Klinges, Grace (Principal), Percent Contribution: %50, Holstein, Daniel (Principal), Percent Contribution: %10, Veglia, Alex (Principal), Percent Contribution: %10. Tracking Bacterial, Viral, and Gene Expression Shifts throughout SCTLD Development in the Dry Tortugas, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, State, $259253. (Submitted: April 2023, Funded: July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024). Grant.
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  • Changsut, I. V., Borbee, E. M., Womack, H., Shickle, A., Sharp, K., & Fuess, L. E. (2024). Photosymbiont density is correlated with constitutive and induced immunity in the facultatively symbiotic coral, Astrangia poculata. Integrative & Comparative Biology.
  • Diaz de Villegas, S. C., Borbee, E., Abeldaki, P., & Fuess, L. E. (2024). Prior heat stress affects pathogen susceptibility in the model cnidarian, Exaiptasia diaphana. Communications Biology.
  • Villafranca, N., Changsut, I. V., Diaz de Villegas, S. C., Womack, H. R., & Fuess, L. E. (2023). Characterization of trade-offs between immunity and reproduction in Astrangia poculata. PeefJ, 11, e16586. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.16586
  • Changsut, I. V., Womack, H. R., Shickle, A., Sharp, K. H., & Fuess, L. E. (2022). Variation in symbiont density is linked to changes in constitutive immunity in the facultatively symbiotic coral, Astrangia poculata. Biology Letters. Retrieved from https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.16.496460v1
  • Weber, J. N., Steinel, N. C., Peng, F., Shim, K. C., Lohman, B. K., Fuess, L. E., … Bolnick, D. I. (2022). Evolutionary gain and loss of a pathological immune response to parasitism. Science, 377(6611). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abo3411
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  • Award / Honor Recipient: Robert Lochmiller Award, Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology, Division of EcoImmunology & Disease Ecology. January 2023
  • Award / Honor Recipient: TXST CoSE Millionaire Award, Texas State College of Science and Engineering. 2024
  • Award / Honor Recipient: TXST CoSE Achievement Award for Scholarly/Creative Activities, Texas State College of Science and Engineering. 2023
  • Award / Honor Nominee: Huey Award for Best Student Presentation, Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, Division of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. 2018
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Outstanding Graduate Research Award, University of Texas at Arlington Biology Department. 2016
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  1. Chair

    Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, Division of Ecoimmunology & Disease Ecology

  2. Member

    R2R1 Presidential Commission

  3. Other

    You Me & IDP Workshop

  4. Other

    Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Division of Ecology and Evolution

  5. Member

    Shared Research Operations Committee

  6. Member

    Postdoc Development Working Group

  7. View all activities