Anthony Orvedahl, MD, PhD, was born in Denver, CO, into a professionally diverse family: his father worked in the aerospace industry, his mother was a homemaker and administrative assistant, his older brother became a successful comedian, and his younger brother pursued woodwork. His paternal grandfather notably designed one of the earliest computers at the Los Alamos National Lab. Before choosing the path of a physician scientist, Orvedahl spent his Colorado summers skateboarding and winters snowboarding, avoiding “adulting” for as long as possible. When this lifestyle proved unsustainable, he enrolled at the University of Colorado, graduating summa cum laude for his work on cell death in the roundworm C. elegans.
Orvedahl’s research interest was sparked during a summer undergraduate program studying inflammatory responses mediated by toll-like receptors (TLRs), which are conserved from humans to fruit flies. After graduation, he moved to the plains of north Texas, where he studied cellular autophagy (“self-eating”) in antiviral host defenses under the mentorship of Beth Levine, MD. Fascinatingly, the genes required to clear cells of invading viruses were also crucial for removing damaged mitochondria. This observation fueled his interest in cell intrinsic mechanisms of host defense, exploring how they have evolved to maintain homeostasis both during infection responses and in steady-state conditions.