Research Focus Teams
Cancer, COVID-19, Diabetes, Obesity, Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis
Research Interests
Antiviral immunity, Auto-Immune Diseases, Viral Immunology, Virome
Departments
Microbiology & Immunology
Bio
Dr. Tokuyama has always been interested in the interaction between viruses and the immune system. As an undergrad at University of California, Irvine, she worked in an infectious disease lab that focused on HIV research and obtained her B.S. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. She then worked at the National Institutes of Health at the Vaccine Research Center studying Ebola virus vaccines. Dr. Tokuyama obtained her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from University of California, Berkeley where she studied mechanisms of how natural kill cells recognize and kill cell infected by herpesviruses. Dr. Tokuyama trained at Yale University in the Department of Immunobiology, where she became fascinated by endogenous retroviruses and established the foundation for the research that she will carry out at UBC. In the past year, Dr. Tokuyama has also been part of the Yale IMPACT Team to develop a rapid saliva-based qPCR assay for SARS-CoV-2 and contributing to research on understanding immunological impacts of COVID-19.
- 2019 American Society of Virology Cares Award
- 2019 Best oral presentation for postdocs at Yale Human Translational Immunology Retreat
- 2016 Best poster award for postdocs at Yale Immunology Retreat
- 2013-2015 Postdoctoral NIH T32 in Human and Translational Immunology, Yale School of Medicine
- 2010-2011 UC Cancer Coordinating Committee Graduate Fellowship, UC Berkeley
- 2002-2005 Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program Fellow, UC Irvine