Peachman ... Under the Microscope

Peachman (far right) with colleagues

When Kristina (Tina) Peachman ('95; Altoona '90-'92) arrived at Penn State Altoona in 1990, she knew exactly what career she wanted to enter upon graduation—or so she thought. She began her student orientation with the goal of becoming a medical technologist. Then she met her advisor, John Lennox, who took a look at her transcripts, asked her a few questions, and challenged her to take the harder microbiology classes. "He told me that I would be bored being a medical technologist," recalls Peachman.

Boredom is one thing that Peachman doesn't find time for in her career. Taking Lennox's advice, she took the more challenging path and graduated from Penn State with a degree in microbiology and then obtained her Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She now spends her days in the company of viruses, bacteria, antigens, and fellow researchers as a research scientist with the U.S. Military HIV Research Program, a part of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

"I like knowing that the research that I'm doing could potentially help society directly, or help other scientists to develop products to help society."
—Tina Peachman

Peachman's work includes developing vaccine platforms and adjuvants [agents that help increase the immune response of vaccines] as well as studying Ebola virus, yellow fever virus, dengue virus and HIV. Most recently, she has been part of a team that is developing an anthrax vaccine; it has been tested in mice and rabbits and has shown to be protective.

According to Peachman, "Science is definitely not a 9-5 job." Experiments can last twelve or more hours, from start to finish. "Having to explain to people that you need to go into work on the weekends to 'feed' cells tends to draw unique looks," notes Peachman.

It is an exhausting job, but Peachman loves it. "Science tends to be 99% perseverance; so many days go by without a breakthrough," she states." But it is the sporadic finding that others have not discovered that makes it all worth it."

—SHARI ROUTCH