Lindsey Tolman

Biology graduate and Biomedical Science doctoral candidate Lindsey Tolman is a member of a New York State Department of Health laboratory that researches therapeutics to respond to a variety of infectious agents, from the virus that causes COVID-19 to the bacteria that causes whooping cough. 

Lindsey is specifically working with ricin, a toxin found naturally in castor beans that has the potential to be weaponized. 

“We don’t have any FDA-approved therapeutics to prevent or treat ricin intoxication,” she explains. “I use our best ricin-neutralizing monoclonal antibodies to generate immune complexes that can be used prophylactically to induce protective vaccination against ricin exposure.” 

It’s important work, and Russell Sage College helped her get ready for it. 

Lindsey says a doctorate was not on her radar when she began Sage; it’s a goal that emerged as she took classes in molecular genetics, cell biology, neurobiology, and emerging diseases and learned about careers in therapeutic development. 

“I was very lucky to have great relationships with professors who had gone through the Ph.D. process and took a lot of time to help me figure my path out,” she says.

The labs that accompanied her cell biology and molecular genetics classes were especially valuable to her.

“They got me comfortable doing things at the bench like PCR and ELISAs that are the basis for so many of my experiments in grad school,” she says. “I was also very lucky to do some lab research with Professors LaMonica and Jenks, who were awesome mentors and taught me to apply what I was learning in classes to real, impactful research.”

Lindsey will complete her doctorate in spring 2023 and continue to work in capacities that advance therapeutic development.  

“I’m very excited,” she says. “Patent law and project management are two areas that I have my eye on and would love to get into.”