Melissa Bates, PhD, FAPS

I’m an integrative physiologist and am motivated to understand how medical events and their treatment alter people’s bodies. Our group is focused on two areas—understanding how the early life experiences of the premature infant change their ability to respond to stress later when they become adults. We have learned in recent years that survivors of prematurity are at high risk of high blood pressure and heart failure, even as young adults. We are also studying how sleep apnea—a very common condition in older adults—makes blood cancers more resistant to treatment.

There have been tremendous advances in pharmaceutical treatments over the last decades, but some patients don’t respond to these treatments. Also, how we treat patients can confer lasting changes to how they respond to the environment later. We are driven to benefit patients by developing strategies to make medications work better and to counteract some of the less than desirable effects that some of these treatments have.

I love to build things and moved to Iowa because we could buy a piece of land and turn it into our version of paradise. If I wasn’t a scientist, I’d probably spend my time creating an Italian garden in Iowa. Or, maybe I’d be a writer. I’d definitely never be bored!