Flora Dievenich Braes

UConn School of Medicine

I was born in New York City and grew up in Germany. I graduated from Boston College in 2022 with a B.S. in Biology with a concentration in Cell & Developmental Biology and an interdisciplinary minor in Medical Humanities, Health and Culture.

I participated in EMS education and outreach throughout high school and college and worked as a volunteer EMT on 911 calls in my community at home and at Boston College EMS, our student-run campus ambulance agency. In college, I worked part-time as a COVID-19 vaccinator at community clinics around the city of Boston and as a medical assistant at Boston Medical Center. I also volunteer in the soup kitchen and food pantry at Haley House.

After graduating from Boston College, I worked as a research Assistant in the Orkin Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital, studying epigenetic regulation in acute myeloid leukemia transcriptional circuits. Building on prior projects investigating the neural basis of cuttlefish camouflage in the Axel Lab at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute and the role of thyroid hormone in bone development in the McMenamin Lab at Boston College, I have a research interest in gene-environment interactions.

I believe that healthcare is a fundamental human right, and that equitable medical care and health education can serve as an instrument of social change. I am excited to join UST/AHEC to contribute to my community as part of a team of students with diverse interests and paths in medicine who similarly embody this mission