PhD grad hopes to use her work to help families

Growing up in rural Louisiana, surrounded by animals, gave Tabitha Manuel a love of science from an early age.

"I spent all of my time outside, playing with animals," she said.

Watching her family's cats give birth to litters of kittens eventually led her to study infectious diseases and their effects on pregnancy, and now she is graduating with a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from Tulane University School of Medicine. Manuel's doctoral research, with Dr. Amitinder Kaur, chair of the division of immunology and professor of microbiology and immunology at the school and Tulane National Biomedical Research Center, focused on congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV), the leading infectious cause of birth defects.

After receiving her undergraduate degree in biology from LSU Alexandria, Manuel earned her teaching certificate and worked as a teacher and curriculum developer in Vietnam.

"I had never been on a plane before, and I had never left the South," she said. "I wanted to go somewhere that was very different from the US."

As much as she loved teaching, she missed exploring new ideas and discoveries.

"I liked research during college, and I liked teaching," she said. "So, what combines all of that? Grad school."

Manuel knew she wanted to study infectious disease and live in New Orleans, so Tulane was the perfect fit. What really clinched it for her, however, was the people.

"I really liked all the people I interacted with during my interview, especially the current grad students," she said. She has paid that experience forward by helping with prospective student interviews and giving people who visit the Tulane National Biomedical Research Center tours.

During her time at Tulane, Manuel attended a conference on congenital CMV, which can cause hearing loss as well as other defects in newborns. Manuel learned from doctors, parents, researchers and others who shared their perspectives on the disease. After the conference, she decided she wanted to help on the clinical side, not just through research. She decided to become a newborn hearing screening technician.

The technicians screen infants in the days after birth to detect potential hearing loss as early as possible.

The role has given Manuel a new perspective on the disease she studies and on working in a hospital environment.

"I like working with the nurses and seeing how the hospital operates, not just the clinical side of things but the admin side and billing and all of that," she said.

Her time in the hospital reinforced Manuel's desire to also become a pediatrician. She hopes to return to Tulane School of Medicine, this time as a prospective medical student.