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What's Your Story?
Every couple of months, we feature a short bio from one of our trainees. The full interview, along with archived stories appear here.
David Tafoya
(June 2026)
What drew you to science?
I have always been fascinated by how things work. As a I was growing up I quickly realized that science could provide the answers to my many questions. My journey into science was facilitated by my amazing science teachers throughout my primary education. My early “experiments” started in fifth grade and included exploding gummy bears in test tubes, to dissecting frogs, to working with researchers in the Arctic to build phytoplankton catchers. Science had always been fun for me and during my first research experience in undergrad, I had the opportunity to work with herpesviruses. I quickly realized that viruses know our biology way better than we do, and that by studying them we could learn more about ourselves. When I entered graduate school, I knew I wanted to continue studying viruses - so I chose rotation labs that had focused on unique fields of structural biology, evolutionary biology, and antiviral development.