Mark Peeples 

Immediate Past President

Mark E. Peeples, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine in Columbus, Ohio. He received his undergraduate degree from Heidelberg University in Tiffin, Ohio, and his PhD from Wayne State University in Detroit. His laboratory at Nationwide Children’s Hospital studies respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a pathogen that tops the admissions list at children’s hospitals each year and is second only to influenza as a cause for “excess deaths” of the elderly each winter. His laboratory is working to identify the in vivo receptor for RSV, what triggers the viral fusion protein to initiate infection, how anti-RSV drugs inhibit viral membrane fusion, and to develop a live attenuated RSV vaccine.

Dr. Peeples has 80 publications and 10 book chapters/invited reviews. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Virology and reviews manuscripts for many other journals. He has served as an ad hoc member on 30 Study Sections for the NIH, FDA and CDC, and as a member for the American Heart Association. He currently serves on the PATH scientific advisory board (funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) tasked with generating an RSV vaccine for the developing world.