Ryan Nistler

Background

About Ryan Nistler

I have extensive experience in molecular biology with an emphasis in viral immunology. My primary interests include: the development of drugs and biologicals to combat infectious disease, the application of new technologies to a variety of scientific fields to allow for innovative avenues of research, and the role that scientists can and should play in the education of the public to the strengths and shortcomings of modern medicine. My post-doctoral work at Pfizer has explored the production of various type I interferons in a disease context, and how those different type I IFNs can modulate cellular metabolic function. My main interest has been how the nuances in type I IFN signaling can alter outcomes based on changes in the underlying metabolism of the surrounding tissue. As a graduate student, my dissertation research explored the role of micro RNAs in the regulation of viral infection and the primary anti-viral interferon response. Techniques that were essential to the project include working with a variety of classic virology and immunology assays as well as more modern techniques such as Nanostring and Solexa deep sequencing. My previous work as a research assistant involved the development of infectious clone based vaccines against West Nile Virus. As such, a combination of molecular biology and viral immunology techniques were used. It also involved using Select Agents and being trained and cleared to work in a BSL3+ facility.