Gator HHMI link

After doing the research

If anything, I'm even more excited about research now than when I started! I used to be content with the idea of finishing school, graduating with my four year degree, and then go off and climb my way up some laboratory ladder. Now that I've seen what research is like I want to do some of my own! I've already begun filling out graduate school applications and have my eyes on some universiities like Wisconsin-Madison. 

I hope to specialize in virogolgy and microbial-verterbrate interactions, looking at things such as phage therapy for pathogen elimination or examining the different serotypes of known level 4 hot viruses and determing what about the physiology of the two strains enabled them to accomplish different objectives. Reston, a sister to Ebola Zaire, for example, has the ability to replicate in a human host without causing illness but in monkeys it causes mortality. The strain has recently crossed species, moving to swine. What changes did the virus  undergo to make this possible? Research like this may be key to creating cures or vaccines for these deadly viruses. 

Where else but in research can you continually SEE the DNA you were forced to learn about in class?

            Electrophoresis gel of genomic DNA                   More DNA!

University of Florida