Ruth Ann Veach earned a B.S. from Wake Forest University and the Bowman Gray School of Medicine in Medical Technology. After a brief stint as a licensed Medical Technologist, she began her research career in the laboratory of Dr. Tamar Ben-Porat at Vanderbilt, studying the herpes virus Pseudorabies. There she learned to apply her clinical laboratory training to the unique requirements of basic scientific research and developed a broad repertoire of techniques in tissue culture, virus culture and purification, DNA, RNA and protein assays and molecular biology. She also acquired the skills for laboratory management and eventually supervised the daily operation of the lab.
During the next two decades Veach worked in the laboratory of Dr. Jacek Hawiger on new approaches to controlling inflammation caused by microbial, autoimmune and metabolic insults. She has developed, adopted, and applied a wide variety of assays to study signaling pathways targeted by cell-penetrating peptides and proteins, and has broad expertise in the techniques required for in vitro and murine models of inflammation, both acute and chronic.
Veach's primary appointment is in the lab of Dr. Matthew Wilson, with whom she currently works on new research projects.