Kristin Parent, is a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Michigan State University. The primary project in her laboratory involves understanding how viruses recognize and infect their hosts. Parent is also doing pioneering research to advance the use of electron cryo-microscopy (cryoEM) and three-dimensional image reconstruction methods when applied to large and challenging biological specimens that are currently outside cryoEM imaging limitations. Her work includes a combination of biochemistry, molecular biology, biophysics and structural biology. Parent received her B.S. degree in Molecular and Cell Biology and her Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from the University of Connecticut and served as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Diego.