R-MC Alumna Co-authors Opinion Column for New York Times

Sabra Klein '92

Randolph-Macon College alumna Sabra Klein’92, an assistant professor of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), co-authored an opinion column, which was published in the New York Times on October 28, 2009. This article, also posted on the New York Times website, is titled “Do Women Need Such Big Flu Shots?”

Klein’s article is about the emergence of the H1N1 virus and the urgency to get Americans vaccinated. It questions whether, during their planning to develop and distribute this vaccine, scientists failed to consider the “biological differences between men and women.” Klein and her co-author, Phyllis Greenberger, president and chief executive of the non-profit Society for Women’s Health Research, cite research which supports the claim that “women’s bodies generate a stronger antibody response than men’s do, so less vaccine may be needed to immunize them.” The article theorizes that “if women received a smaller dosage, there would be more vaccine to go around.”

While a student at R-MC, Klein worked as a research assistant for Kelly Lambert, Ph.D., the Macon and Joan Brock Professor of Psychology, and was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate. She earned her Ph.D. in behavioral neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University and is currently on the faculty of JHU’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research focuses on how immunological, hormonal, and genetic differences between males and females affect sex differences in susceptibility to infection. Klein’s husband, Drew Maloney also graduated from R-MC in 1991. He is currently a lobbyist in Washington, DC.