North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: A Doctor in the House? One Day
9/25/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Meares Green has found himself a little obsessed with Sindbis viruses over the last two months.
He's been growing various mutant strains of West Nile virus and chikingunya virus for weeks now, carefully watching them multiply, then stripping them of DNA in the hopes of finding the exact deletion that will one day lead to a vaccine of these mosquito-borne, dangerous diseases that infect millions worldwide every year.
It's all part of the senior offensive lineman's research project for Dr. Dennis T. Brown and Dr. Raquel Hernandez, a husband-and-wife research team in NC State's Department of Molecular and Structural Biochemistry. He chose the research project over a biochemistry 454 lab as his final academic requirement to earn a degree in biochemistry.
And that's his last hurdle on the way into medical school next fall.
So, every day this semester, Green trudges through the dingy corridors of Polk Hall to a brightly lit corner lab filled with thousands of chemicals, expensive centrifuges and a pair of ceiling-high refrigerators full of viruses and bacteria.
No, not the fuzzy blue stuff found on the top of three-week-old leftovers in the office break room -- the potentially dangerous kind that have to be stored at a frosty minus-112 degrees Fahrenheit.
"We don't have the virus proteins, which are lethal," Green said with an assuring voice. "What we work with is the virus DNA and RNA. Nothing can go wrong with those."
So he says.
Green loves working in the lab, even if he has to wear -- ugh -- light-blue rubber gloves. That's the only color for extra-large nitrile rubber gloves that will fit over Green's thick fingers. But they are necessary, especially when he handles the bottle of ethidium bromide -- a cancer-causing mutagen that is needed to reproduce and mutate DNA.
"When I first got there, it was overwhelming because some of those chemicals are really dangerous and all of the equipment is really expensive," Green said. "But after you get over the overwhelming part, it gets easier. It's all so precise, something you wouldn't expect a big guy like me to be doing."
Overwhelming, of course, is relative for the 6-4, 306-pound offensive lineman from Wilmington's Ashley High School. He arrived in Raleigh five years ago as a walk-on, non-scholarship player, just hoping to contribute to the football program and survive academically.
"I honestly didn't know how hard doing this would be," Green said. "When I first got here, I was really overwhelmed. Going through all the freshman classes, with things like organic chemistry, and then going out and having to block guys like Mario Williams and John McCargo, it wasn't a good thing.
"Blocking Mario was probably the hardest thing I've done. But those organic chemistries weren't very easy."
Fortunately for Green, things improved as he matured. It also helped that Williams and McCargo left early for the NFL. By then, however, Green had earned a scholarship and became a versatile member of the offensive line.
He's played both guard and tackle during his three years as a starter.
"He's a blessing for our offensive line," said assistant coach Don Horton. "He does everything you ask him to do and more. He works on his fundamentals. He keeps his mouth shut and does a great job. He's a good player and a better person."
For Wolfpack head coach Tom O'Brien, Green is one of the reasons he likes being at a state-operated school like NC State. He can invite many more walk-ons to try out for the team and potentially earn an athletic scholarship.
"Throughout my career, we've always had kids who walked on and ended up doing a great job for us," O'Brien said. "It's all a matter of finding the right spot for that person to excel. They're usually exceptional students who obviously have their priorities in order, of what they're doing on the field and off the field.
"Meares has been one of those great walk-on assets for us. He earned his scholarship before I got here, and he's done a great job, not only on the field but off the field too."
Green, the student, has maintained a fairly constant 3.2 grade-point average, though he quickly adds that he has not fallen below a 3.6 over the last five semesters, as he has gotten into the upper-level classes that have really piqued his interest. Those marks will help him in his quest for medical school.
He has received secondary applications from four of the five medical schools he applied to and just accepted his first face-to-face interview invitation for the Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine, located on Virginia Tech's research campus in Blacksburg, Va. He'll go there on Oct. 20, four days after the Wolfpack hosts Florida State in a Thursday night game at Carter-Finley Stadium.
He eventually hopes to go into orthopedic medicine. And if there is one thing O'Brien could use right now, it's another good orthopedic doctor on the sidelines.
One day, Green would love to be that guy.
"I think it would be awesome to be a team physician," Green said. "You still get to be around football, be on the sidelines for games, travel with the team and have a practice throughout the week."
Too bad he can't do his medical internship with the Wolfpack this season -- he could get plenty of hands-on experience treating any of the 10 or so starters who are out with long-term or season-ending injuries.
"We've certainly given him a lot of experience this year," O'Brien said.
For now, though, Green plans to concentrate on viruses, not injury epidemics.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
