Allyson Ruffino

Ally Ruffino is pursuing a BS in Microbiology and a Minor in Chemistry on the Pre-Medicine Track. She has worked in the Burmeister lab since her sophomore year at university. Her research focuses on bacteriophage, a virus that can only infect bacteria. Bacteriophage is of interest to the scientific community as it could be used as an alternative to antibiotics. However, just as bacteria evolve resistance to antibiotics, they can do the same with phage.  Ally's research focuses on the genotypic changes and fitness costs of bacterial antibiotic and phage resistance evolution. Ally has presented her research at the UWM Undergraduate Research Symposium, the UWM Biological Sciences Research Symposium, and the Milwaukee-Area Undergraduate Biological Research Conference. Ally has won ‘Outstanding Presentation’ at the UWM Undergraduate Research Symposium and has been a SURF recipient since her sophomore year. In addition to research, She also works in an Emergency Department as a Medical Scribe. She aspires to be an Infectious Disease physician, working with patients infected with mysterious pathogens or complex antibiotic-resistant infections. In addition to patient care she hopes to continue research in clinically relevant microbiology.