
Drake Smith, PhD Student (2014-2017)
Graudate Student
Drake received his B.S. degree in Biochemistry with a minor in Biology from Utah State University 2013. He was a Ph.D. student in the Immunity, Microbes and Molecular Pathogenesis (IMMP) Home Area at UCLA. He conducted PhD thesis research at the Yang Lab in 2014-2017, working on the biology and therapeutic application of invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells. Drake was the first PhD student graduated from the Yang Lab at UCLA; he completed a productive PhD training in 4 years.
Besides research, Drake enjoyed rock climbing, hiking, and camping.
After his PhD training at the Yang Lab, Drake joined the Gilead/Kite Pharma (Santa Monica, California) as a Scientist.