“He will go down as one of the best.”

Mark Buller, Ph.D., of the molecular microbiology and immunology department is referring to fourth-year medical student Tony Nuara in a Saint Louis University Newslink article Feb. 5.

Nuara worked in Buller’s lab from July 2002 to August 2006 and spent the last one-and-a-half years helping to direct the finishing touches on the project with the work being completed by Jill Schriewer, a friend and Buller’s lab manager.

Nuara researched the orthopox virus, a virus from the smallpox family.

Research focused on how the virus evaded the immune system and what made it so effective and efficient.

“This virus binds across many species, while most host receptors and binding proteins are species specific,” Nuara said.

This kind of research can lead to development of new drugs once scientists have an understanding of what happens on a molecular level.

“It’s all the more remarkable considering that other research groups around the world have attempted to solve what he did, but weren’t successful,” Buller said in the Newslink article.

Nuara collaborated with Mark Walter, Ph.D., at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and their work will soon appear in an early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the most widely read scientific journals.

Outside of school and research, Nuara has an 18-month-old daughter, Joey, as well as another child due at the end of March.

His wife, Jennifer, graduated from SLU’s Nursing School’s accelerated option in 2002 and has been a member of the clinical teaching faculty for the past two years.

“My wife is very supportive of my research,” Nuara said.

On Sundays, Nuara can be found at the hospital completing his fourth-year rotations, alternating among the various areas of medicine such as surgery, neurology and family medicine.

“The rotations help [medical students] have an appreciation for the different types of medicine,” Nuara said. “This way, [we] know when to refer patients to a certain type of doctor.”

After finishing his M.D./Ph.D. program, Nuara plans to apply to dermatology residency and eventually become a clinician.

In his spare time, Nuara does home improvement projects and auto restoration.

Research. Relatives. Rotations. How does Nuara balance all of this?

“Just watch less TV,” he said. “There are enough hours in a day to do everything.”