Bio students visit alum's lab during conference

Dr. Justin Pruneski and 11 students attended the annual meeting of the Ohio Branch of the American Society for Microbiology March 31-April 1 at Otterbein University in Westerville.

Students attending were Rory Bage, Madison Flory, Kaylee Fredrickson, Caleb Frye, Bri Galbraith, Enya Granados, Nic Mullenex, Meisha Nguyen, Erica Rifle, Rebekah Sneary and Kaylee Wilburn.

In addition to attending the conference, the group paid a visit to the lab of biology alum Dr. Mark Peeples at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus. Dr. Peeples, '74, a virologist and immunologist, gave a tour of his research lab, introduce the group to some of his collaborators and lab members, and discussed his life’s work. He has spent his career uncovering the detailed mechanisms of how the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) infects cells and causes disease. This work has yielded important insights with practical applications towards developing antiviral agents and a vaccine that will hopefully minimize the health impact of the serious childhood disease.