Education: BS, UCLA, 2006; PhD, University of Washington, 2011. At SPU since 2019.
Tracie Delgado was born and raised in Los Angeles California. She attended UCLA for undergrad where she developed a huge passion for science and UCLA football. While at UCLA, she did molecular biology, cancer biology and herpesvirus research. After receiving her B.S. in Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics from UCLA, she moved to Seattle to pursue a PhD degree in Microbiology at the University of Washington. After graduation, Dr. Delgado spent 8 years as a biology professor at Northwest University before joining the Biology faculty at SPU in 2019.
As an educator, Dr. Delgado strives to encourage academic excellence from both her students and herself. She finds teaching to be very rewarding because it allows her to train, motivate and shape the lives of her students by instilling knowledge they can use for a lifetime. She is very committed to providing a learning environment that is both exciting, interactive and rigorous. Dr. Delgado teaches courses in Cell Biology and General Biology.
It is estimated that ~15-20% of cancers world-wide are caused by virus infections. Dr. Delgado's research focuses on understanding how herpesviruses cause cancer by altering host cell metabolism. Her lab also is working to identify metabolic inhibitors that can provide new antiviral treatments. In 2015, Dr. Delgado gave a TEDx talk, which highlights her research, titled "The Future of Antiviral Therapy". All the experiments in her lab are performed by undergraduate students and many of her students have won awards for their research at both national and regional conferences.
One of Dr. Delgado’s passions is to help increase the number of underrepresented minorities in science. Since 2004, Tracie has been a member of the national "Society of Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in the Sciences" (SACNAS). She has been involved with SACNAS both regionally and nationally, organized over 30 outreach events in the greater Seattle area, given talks and lead sessions at the national conference, and provides mentorship to many students. Dr. Delgado was a speaker at the Seattle March for Science in 2017, where she discussed the need for more underrepresented minorities in the sciences.
Dr. Delgado resides in Renton with her husband Dr. Brian Stuck (DC), their sons Edgar and Ivan, and a yellow Labrador Retriever named Daisy. Tracie’s main hobby is singing. She sings on her church worship team as well as public or private venues around Seattle.
Additional information about Dr. Delgado's research interests may be found on her lab website.
Selected Publications
- Washburne MW, Trejo J, Zambrana RE, Zavala ME, Martinic A, Riestra A, Delgado T, Edwards S, Escobar T, Jamison-McClung D, Vazquez M, Vera I, Guerra M, Marinez DI, Gonzalez E, Rodriguez RL. Early career Latinas in STEM: Challenges and solutions. Cell. 2023; 186(23): P4985-4991. Article.
- Clark SA, Vazquez A, Furiya K, Splattstoesser MK, Bashmail AK, Schwartz H, Russell M, Bhark S-J, Moreno OK, McGovern M, Owsley ER, Nelson TA, Sanchez EL, Delgado T. Rewiring of the host cell metabolome and lipidome during lytic gammaherpesvirus infection is essential for infectious virus production. J Virol. 2023; 97(6):e0050623. Article
- Verzosa AL, McGeever LA, Bhark S-J, Delgado T, Salazar N and Sanchez EL. Herpes Simplex Virus 1 Infection of Neuronal and Non-Neuronal Cells Elicits Specific Innate Immune Responses and Immune Evasion Mechanisms. Front. Immunol. 2021; 12:644664. Article
- Delgado T, Bhark S-J, Donahue J. Pandemic Teaching: Creating and teaching cell biology labs online during COVID-19. Biochem Mol Biol Educ. 2021; 49:32–37. Article
- Sanchez, EL., Pulliam, T.H., Dimaio, T.A.,Thalhofer, A.B., Delgado, T. and Lagunoff, M. Glycolysis, Glutaminolysis and Fatty Acid Synthesis are Required for Distinct Stages of KSHV Lytic Replication. J of Virology. 2017 May; 91(10): e02237-16. Article
- Delgado, T., Sanchez, EL., Camarda, R and Lagunoff, M. Global Metabolic Profiling of Infection by an Oncogenic Virus: KSHV Induces and Requires Lipogenesis for Survival of Latent Infection. PLoS Pathog. 2012 Aug;8(8):e1002866. Article
- Delgado, T., Carroll, P.A, Punjabi, A.S., Margineantu, D., Hockenbery, D.M and Lagunoff, M. (2010). Induction of the Warburg effect by Kaposi's Sarcoma Herpesvirus is required for the maintenance of latently infected endothelial cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 107(23):10696-701. Article
- Tracy R. Daniels, Patrick P. Ng, Tracie Delgado, Maureen R. Lynch, Gary Schiller, Gustavo Helguera, and Manuel L. Penichet. (2007). Conjugation of an anti–transferrin receptor IgG3-avidin fusion protein with biotinylated saporin results insignificant enhancement of its cytotoxicity against malignant hematopoietic cells. Mol Cancer Ther. 6(11):2995-3008. Article
- Daniels, TR., Delgado T., Helguera, G., Penichet, ML. (2006). The transferrin receptor part II: Targeted delivery of therapeutic agents into cancer cells. Clin Immunol. 121(2):159-76. Review. Abstract
- Daniels, TR., Delgado T., Rodriguez, JA., Helguera, G., Penichet, ML. (2006). The transferrin receptor part I: Biology and targeting with cytotoxic antibodies for the treatment of cancer. Clin Immunol. 121(2):144-58. Review. Abstract
Please see Dr. Delgado's CV (PDF) for additional information.