Austriaco is the founder and principal investigator of the Austriaco Lab. The laboratory is located at Providence College and is primarily an undergraduate research laboratory that investigates cell death using the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, as a model organism. Because of the pandemic, the lab has pivoted to developing a yeast based delivery platform for a COVID-19 vaccine that can be easily deployed in developing countries. References University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni American people of Filipino descent American microbiologists 20th-century American Roman Catholic priests Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni Living people Catholic clergy scientists 1968 births