Alumni Spotlight: Dr. Zachary Morehouse — Master of Biology Medical Sciences Program
Get to know alumni Dr. Zachary Morehouse, as he shares how Georgia State University impacted his career and journey as a medical student, as well as tips for current graduate students.
Program Completed: Master of Biology Medical Sciences (MBMS)
Occupation: Completing Residency in Family Medicine at Atrium Carolinas Medical Center
Currently Residing: Charlotte, North Carolina
Q: When did you attend Georgia State?
A: I started in the fall of 2016 and then finished in the winter of 2017. I was a year and a half in the grad program, but before that, I worked as a research assistant from 2015 to 2016 at Georgia State.
Q: How did you hear about the Master of Biology Medical Sciences (MBMS) program?
A: It was the first year they were doing the MBMS program when I was applying to the biology graduate program. I was interested in completing a program that was going to further expand my knowledge base and go into more human-based disease processes and physiology. When I applied to the biology program, I was contacted about this MBMS program that they were starting. They alerted me of the program because I had mentioned some of my research interests to the advisors that I met with, and those aligned well with the MBMS program.
Q: How exactly did the MBMS program impact your career?
A: I think that the MBMS program has been a tremendous help to my career from a few different standpoints. When I decided that I wanted to go to medical school, going through the MBMS program prepared me for some of the foundational topics in medical school and gave me just a small taste of some of the rigorous coursework. It’s not by any means as intense as medical school is, but some of our faculty in the MBMS program and the graduate programs in biology were former faculty at medical schools, so they bring that level of intensity to students that are interested in that path.
Having a graduate degree in conjunction with my medical degree has helped position me well so far in my career. The MBMS program set me up to have some research and teaching background, both of which are key components of my career right now. So outside of being a physician, it’s given me exposure to teaching medical students and research interns while continuing to work on research projects.
Lastly, through the MBMS program, I had a lot of flexibility to branch out and get exposure to some graduate-level coursework in other topics, such as healthcare administration and leadership. Originally, I wasn’t sure if those subject areas would benefit my career, but recently I have found myself on a ton of leadership committees within our hospital system, County Medical Society, and the American Association of Family Physicians, so having that background of healthcare admin and systems-level thinking has been helpful.
The MBMS program gave me teaching, research, and broad exposure to some healthcare topics that we don’t necessarily get to spend time studying in medical school, and all of those things have helped me going forward with my career.
Q: What was your research path through Georgia State?
A: I originally came on as a research assistant in Doctor Richard Plemper’s lab. Dr. Plemper is one of the Institute of Biomedical Science faculty, and when I joined his lab, I was very interested in virology and looking at drug discovery. I got a lot of good foundational experience in a virology research lab because of this opportunity.
Towards the end of my graduate training, I took a position at Omni International, which is a biotech company. I was able to utilize a lot of my virology background that I had developed at Georgia State and with Dr. Plemper’s lab. I could now apply it to more practical approaches and biotechnology, and use molecular techniques to target some more diagnostic ventures. That was an interesting experience for me to be able to experience both academic labs and industry-sponsored research, and get my foot into biotech and learn how that runs. Coming out of graduate school, I was the original intern at Omni and then stayed on with them as one of their research consultants (through medical school and still while in my current role).
Q: What is your greatest professional accomplishment?
In my second year of medical school, I played a role in addressing the diagnostic challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The shutdowns and unprecedented demand for testing highlighted a big gap in our ability to conduct standard PCR tests. Omni International, recognizing this problem, reached out to me to offer their support.
The main issue was that so many resources were needed to perform chemical extraction in viral detection workflows. This led to fierce competition for limited and expensive supplies. Big hospital systems, bigger states and municipalities, and certain countries were buying all of these supplies, leaving many communities without enough testing resources. Dr. Rodney Nash, a Georgia State alumnus and my partner at Omni, and I worked together to develop a direct-to-PCR technology for COVID testing, bypassing many of those chemical extraction and buffer steps to be able to accurately test for COVID in both nasal swabs and saliva. This allowed us to create a test that didn’t need as many reagents, didn’t take quite as long, and could be distributed to the communities that were struggling to find accurate, affordable testing.
We worked hard to pilot and validate this new testing technology with small partnerships at Emory, Virginia Tech, Augusta University, and others. The combination of these efforts, which took place from March to July 2020, showed the effectiveness of our approach. The project took an even more meaningful turn when we successfully deployed our testing method in Malawi, Africa, addressing a critical need in a community lacking testing resources.
It was a lot of late nights and a lot of logistical challenges of navigating and running a trial across the ocean while finishing medical school in the middle of a pandemic. But it is one of the most meaningful projects that I’ve completed in my career, especially knowing that we were able to help those communities.
Q: What advice do you have for current grad students at Georgia State?
A: My advice for current grad students is to challenge yourself. One thing that I did in grad school—and I’m happy that I did— is that I took some harder classes. Taking some of those more difficult classes ensured that I really learned the material. My goal was not to study hard just to pass the test but to study hard to be able to treat my future patients and take care of people. The information I learned in those classes has allowed me to help my patients and innovate and change my community.
Q: Who influenced you the most during your time at Georgia State?
A: A handful of professors influenced me a lot. When I was physically at Georgia State, Dr. Richard Plemper essentially gave me a job in his lab and let me start experiencing what Georgia State was. He gave me my first start in research before even joining the graduate program and acted as a good mentor to me while I was grappling with career decisions and learning about the research realm.
Dr. Mark Beirne and Dr. Carmen Eilertson were both helpful to me, as I took multiple courses from them. They were intense professors but had both taught at the medical school level. They were very open and honest with me about what the next steps would look like for me when pursuing a career in medicine.
Q: How would you describe Georgia State?
A: Georgia State is innovation. It makes you-- whether it’s through the strong research that they’re building, the coursework, or the diversity of ideas that we get to experience-- Georgia State teaches you to be an innovator and to push the envelope.
Q: Do you have any other thoughts you’d like to share?
A: The connection between Georgia State and Omni is strong. As of now, Dr. Nash is still at Omni, and I have continued to work with that team. And since I originally joined Omni’s team as an intern, we’ve taken many, many more interns from Georgia State’s program— particularly from the MBMS program— to go through and learn some of the ins and outs of the industry-sponsored science and do some of their research capstones with the company.
It’s been a pleasure for me to not only have been an intern and work through the lab, but also now being on the other side and mentoring some of the students-- getting to pay back some of that guidance that I got when I was in their shoes.
Learn more about the Master of Biology Medical Sciences Program (MBMS).