Graduate student, Biology
Mei-Ling grew up in Alexandria, VA and served as an officer in the US Air Force for 8 years prior to gaining her interest in science. She received her bachelor’s degree in Biology at the University of Cincinnati in 2021. As an undergraduate student, Mei-Ling studied the IL-1 signaling pathway in blast-induced traumatic injury (TBI), examining how IL-1-mediated activation of neurotoxic astrocytes in a mouse model contributes to neuroinflammation and neuronal death. During the pandemic, she worked in a clinical diagnostics lab in northern Kentucky, processing more than 10,000 COVID-19 samples per day for the state of Kentucky and testing sites nationwide. After developing a passion for virology research, Mei-Ling joined the lab as a research technologist in November 2021, where she is investigating the linkages between naturally occurring genetic variations of clinical isolates of HSV-1 and their virulence phenotypes. Her research aims to generate recombinant swaps of loci associated with high-virulence and low-virulence to better understand the impact of viral pathogenesis in a mouse ocular model of infection.
Mei-Ling Liber
W-222 Millennium Science Complex
University Park, PA 16802
mpl5915@psu.edu
814-867-4854
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