Governors State student earns STEM award for work with Argonne on vaccines

Chicago Tribune

28-04-2025

Lauryn Perry envisions a future where vaccines take only a few days to produce, not the typical three or four years scientists now spend developing them for the public.
Perry should know, even though she's still a college student majoring in biology on a pre-med track. Set to graduate in May from Governor State University in University Park, Perry recently took home a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math award from the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation Symposium in Chicago.
Governors State students Karla Luviano and Delilah Sutherland also won awards.
The symposium is coordinated by the U.S. National Science Foundation and recognized minority undergraduates for their research in science technology, engineering and math.
Perry won for work she did during an Argonne National Laboratory internship, performing computer-based science research about integrating learning language models with immunogen design. Immunogens are substances (usually proteins) that, when introduced into a living organism, create an immune response.
Artificial intelligence played a big part in the design, too.
'We used an AI-based program system and from there we trained this system to be able to code and create models for possible development of vaccines and other types of immunotherapies,' said Perry.
She and a few other student interns who worked on the research did data collection from an immune epitope (part of an antigen that stimulates an immune response) database to get the models. They then designed a coded script through Python and Jupyter notebooks.
'The purpose of the entire experiment was to see if there was a better, more efficient way to create vaccines and immunotherapy, because traditionally it's a manual process that takes about three or four years to create just one,' said Perry, who lives in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. 'So if we created a vaccine through learning language models, we could get results within a day or two.'
Karla Luviano, a chemistry major at GSU, won for her work on the creation of crystals using molten salts in a 'flux' (crystals are dissolved and then crystalize) technique.
Delilah Sutherland, also a chemistry major, won for synthesizing and studying the structural properties of manganese arsenate to learn about the compound's behavior and transport properties.
Perry was mentored by GSU professors and tutored other students. She became a student ambassador, helping friends and other students majoring in STEM. She said the experience allowed her first-choice opportunities at internships and other programs.
At Argonne, she and other students worked with a research scientist on their projects.
'Lauryn consistently demonstrates a deep passion for learning and an unwavering commitment to excellence throughout her educational journey in my classes,' said Joseph Day, associate professor of addiction studies and behavioral health at at GSU. 'Her engagement with coursework was characterized by her proactive approach to seeking knowledge beyond the curriculum, insightful contributions to class discussions and ability to connect theoretical concepts with practical applications.'
Nicholas Marra, GSU assistant professor of biology, agreed.
'Lauryn is a great student with a ton of potential,' said Marra.
In high school, Perry took classes in graphic design, computer science and a robotics class. She also learned coding skills and for her final project made a video game.
Perry said she credited her creativity in science to her parents,
'My parents just allowed me to be creative and explore, they didn't really shelter my imagination,' she said. 'I would go outside and used to bring home animals a lot,' she said, referring to frogs she collected.
'My mom was a little bit squeamish but she allowed me to explore as a child,' she said.
While Perry earlier wanted to be a vet, she's now hoping to become either a surgeon or anesthesiologist. But first, she'll take a gap year and prepare to re-take her medical college admission test.
She's still interested in vaccines, too, and has high hopes for their production.
'Based on the experiment and hypothesis, we found that this system could help with that,' she said. 'Not until we have more trials for this, but it is something I believe will happen in the near future.'