For the past year and a half, a particular coronavirus has been on everyone’s mind. But viruses of all kinds are always on the mind, and under the microscope, of Kristin Parent, J.K. Billman, Jr., M.D. Endowed Research Professor in the Michigan State University Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Since joining the College of Natural Science in 2013, Parent has established herself as one of the nation’s leading experts of a class of viruses known as bacteriophage, or phage. Her pioneering research utilizes basic microbiology and cutting-edge cryo-microscopy to investigate, at the near atomic level, how phage use cell surface proteins to connect to, infect and reproduce inside some of the world’s deadliest gut bacteria — bacteria like Salmonella, E. coli and Shigella — destroying them in the process.

Read the full story on the College of Natural Science website.