Rylee graduated from Southern Huntingdon County High School in 2018 as Salutatorian. She began her undergraduate studies at West Virginia University in the fall of 2018 and she began working with Dr. Meares at that time. Rylee majors in Immunology and Medical Microbiology and intends to receive her Bachelor of Science in May 2022. She plans to pursue an education to earn a PhD in biomedical sciences.

During her time in Dr. Meares lab, she presented her research at West Virginia University’s Fall Undergraduate Research Symposium (2019), Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium (2021), and the state of West Virginia's Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol (2021). She will be presenting at the 52nd Annual American Society for Neurochemistry Conference in April, 2022.

Rylee attended the Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) at the University of Pittsburgh in 2021. She conducted research full time in Dr. Walter Storkus's laboratory. Here, she evaluated a novel triple reporter mouse model and its role in studying STING agonist treated melanomas and presented her project with an oral presentation at the end of the program.

Rylee is currently a first year PhD student in the Program of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Pittsburgh.

You can follow me on Twitter @4thryon4th for updates on my professional life!