Orlaith Keenan graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2019 with a degree in Microbiology. As an undergraduate, Keenan worked at Apeel Sciences where she isolated fungal pathogens and screened potential antifungals. She later joined the Zackular Lab as a technician, studying the interactions between the infant microbiome and C. difficile. Now, as a graduate student in the Microbiology, Virology, and Parasitology program at Penn, Keenan is excited to continue exploring the dynamic microbial interactions in the gut.