Jovan Lopez

Jovan considers himself a Texafornian, having grown up in Texas and spent most of his adult life in California. Though he majored in Chemistry at Stanford University, he first worked in the Translational Immunology lab of Catherine Blish. His work there seeded his interest in immunology but planted ideas of doing science and medicine. However, he was charmed by his organic chemistry professor and so switched to the lab of Noah Burns, where he worked on synthetic methods development. After his undergraduate, he began working at Merck Research Laboratories, San Francisco as a medicinal chemist. Over three years, he was involved in the discovery, lead optimization, and pre-clinical development of several small molecules and antibody-drug conjugates. This formative experience cemented his desire to pursue dual MD/PhD degrees. He started at Yale’s Medical Scientist Training Program in 2020 and completed two years of medical school before joining the Spiegel lab as an Immunobiology student. His research applies chemistry to understand and treat autoimmune diseases. Meanwhile, he practices sexual and reproductive healthcare at HAVEN Free Clinic. He also enjoys board games with friends, replaying Legend of Zelda video games, and occasionally making noise on the French horn.