On January 28th the CFAH graduate student unit met for dinner at their first event of 2022 at El Campesino in Wooster and had conversation with CFAH alumnus, Dr. Yixuan Jacob Hou.
Dr. Hou received his PhD degree at the Food Animal Health Research Program (now known as CFAH) in 2019. His research thesis focused on studying molecular mechanism of attenuation and vaccine development of a swine coronavirus (lab advisor - Dr. Wang). After graduation, Dr. Hou became a postdoctoral research fellow within Dr. Ralph Baric's lab at the University of North Carolina, working on SARS-CoV-2 and pre-emerging coronaviruses. In 2022, Dr. Hou joined Moderna Therapeutics and is working on viral mRNA vaccine research.
His advice to students, “Follow your heart, plan ahead and be persistent”.