Tori Kent

Lab Manager

Tori Kent

Tori Kent is the lab manager at K-State Olathe.

Kent ensures that lab operations are in accordance with the university, state and federal regulations and guidelines. She manages and maintains lab equipment used to gather data, manages inventory and updates and develops methods to evaluate nutritional, sensorial and physical quality using existing lab equipment.

Additionally, Kent trains students in lab equipment and protocols to ensure best practices are used. She supports both graduate and undergraduate students and leads the lab portion of the postharvest physiology lab. She also assists with K-12 programs and outreach and supports extension activities related to the lab.

Prior to joining the team at K-State Olathe, Kent was a translational scientist in the Airway and Asthma Translational Research Unit at The University of Kansas Medical Center. Kent performed research related to asthma while using a variety of biological assays to study biomarkers. She also designed and implemented protocols through regular reading of scientific literature and presented data weekly at lab meetings and monthly at department meetings.

With a strong passion for lab safety skills, Kent promoted safety and compliance in the laboratory through encouraging proper use of PPE and maintaining a chemical database. Kent also trained laboratory technicians on biological assays, such as Western blotting and microscopy.

Kent also served as the lead research specialist and lab manager for Kelly Lab at Emory University. She supported Ph.D. students’ projects by running experiments and performing biological replicates to ensure accurate and/or significant results for publication and was the designated lab manager for an epigenetics laboratory.

Kent holds a master of science in microbiology and cell science from the University of Florida and a bachelor of science in biochemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology.