Dr. MacNeill sat down with 9News reporter Jennifer Meckles to explain what she knows about monkeypox from studying past outbreaks, and its effect on animal species.

Amy MacNeill, of Colorado State University, studies pox viruses from a veterinary perspective, given that rodents so often spread the disease to people.

Amy MacNeill weighed in on how worried we should be about monkeypox, the threat of zoonotic spillover, and what differentiates this outbreak from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amy MacNeill’s work is part of a growing subfield of cancer therapy called oncolytic virus therapy, which involves using genetically modified viruses to not only kill cancer cells, but also trigger an additional immune response from the body against those same cancer cells.

Veterinary pathologist Amy MacNeill and her team are using the vaccinia virus – used as the very first vaccine, for smallpox – to make a vaccine that would protect against coronavirus.

Kirsha Fredrickson, mentored by Amy MacNeill, received 3rd place for her basic science poster presentation, “Viral-mediated oncolysis of cancer cells isolated from canine tumors.”