Lynda Ruffini: From vet tech to ’moving maiden extraordinaire’
Her title is senior research support specialist, and her work is critical to pharmacy research
![Lynda Ruffini is senior research support specialist for the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.](https://www.binghamton.edu/news/images/uploads/features/20190222_Ruffini01_jwc.jpg)
Lynda Ruffini could not have predicted that her veterinary technician training at SUNY Canton would lead her to pharmacy, but it provided her with an uncommon background that serves the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences well.
With only 30 students accepted into the vet tech program at Canton that year, Ruffini had one-on-one training in pretty much everything, she said. “I also trained with the med techs so I have a lot of background in hematology, clinical chemistry, medical microbiology and trained in everything from dogs and cats, to horses and sheep, to bio-techniques, histology and all that. Everything had a lab with it!”
After getting her degree, she spent a number of years managing a large veterinary clinic in Torrance, Calif. “But once you’re a manager, there’s not really anywhere to go, so I applied to Harbor UCLA and got picked up by neonatologists Alan Jobe and Machiko Ikegami (the Jobe/Ikegami Pediatric Cardio-Pulmonary Lab) and they were doing surfactant research to treat respiratory distress syndrome in infants,” she said. “A surfactant is a wetting agent that coats the lungs so babies can breathe easier when they’re on a ventilator. It was very interesting and my start in the big world of research.
“I would do their lab work and I was actually working in the animal studies and the in-vivo experiments, running ventilators, drawing blood gasses, then processing samples for hemoglobin, protein, phosphorus, phospho-lipids and using radioactive techniques to measure leakage in and out of the lungs,” Ruffini said.
About five years down the road, Ruffini relocated to the East Coast, landing at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Northport, N.Y., and SUNY Stony Brook, where she did more basic research in nephrology, worked in William Van Nostrand’s Alzheimer’s Lab and then with Gerond Lake-Bakaar in Hepatitis C research.
Then another relocation was in the cards for Ruffini, this time to Binghamton.
“I have experience in many different types of research, so applied to Binghamton,” she said. “Well, actually, I cold called Binghamton and thought I might get picked up by lab.” Linda Spear (distinguished professor of psychology) hired her as a research technician to work on her alcohol studies that focus on alcohol sensitivity in adolescents. “The research was fascinating!”
Ruffini had worked in Spear’s lab for over six years when her current position opened up. “It seemed like such a phenomenal, ground-floor, founding opportunity,” she said. “Raju (Kanneboyina Nagaraju, professor and chair of pharmaceutical sciences) originally hired me and then Dean Gloria Meredith asked if I could do the ordering for the whole Pharmaceutical Sciences Department and assist with getting the labs set up in the Center of Excellence (COE). I didn’t realize the unbelievable scale of all the equipment they needed!”
It’s been quite a journey for Ruffini – whose title is senior research support specialist but might better be “moving maven extraordinaire” – setting up labs in the COE at the Innovative Technologies Complex, then getting everything moved to the new pharmacy building. “We started in the COE with a big empty room with very little electrical, trying to get all of our high-tech laboratory equipment installed,” she said. “Then we tore it all down and moved it!”
“It took a lot of planning by our Moving Committee and help from Physical Facilities, and I think it went pretty well,” Ruffini said. “There was a lot of worrying involved, but it actually went pretty smoothly – not painlessly, but smoothly. So, since then, I’ve been shifting gears.”
Some might expect her job has slowed since the move was completed, but Ruffini is still immersed in ordering lab supplies and some specialized equipment.
“I spend a lot of time power shopping for science to get the best deals and shipping,” she said, adding that there are always environmental health and safety and fire-safety issues to work through. She’s also working with the Radiation Safety Committee on getting approval for radioactive and isotope use in the new building. “I often have to shift gears.” she said. “I’m also assisting with the Pharmaceutical Sciences Laboratory Equipment website and the chargeback process for use of our laboratory equipment.
“My job is often challenging but never boring,” Ruffini said. “It’s sometimes overwhelming, but you’re always learning and there are great people you get to work with from so many departments: Physical Facilities, EH&S, purchasing, Laboratory Animal Resources, maintenance. … There are so many unsung heroes who really have provided so much support. There are a lot of people working behind the scenes who have helped us so much.”
Ruffini will also stay busy as new people are brought on board, and she maintains the lab equipment and tracks inventory. “A lot of my time is watching the money and ordering, as well as making sure if something breaks or is leaking that it’s taken care of,” she said. “I’m also the fire safety officer for the building.
“There are a million little things and it’s sometimes hard to know what I do on a given day,” she said. “There are always a million questions from students, technicians, staff and the doctors, too. Plus, I make sure everyone has training before they have access to the labs, and being the gatekeeper is not always easy, but it’s important.”
“I try to stay flexible and multitask,” she said. “That’s why it’s never boring!”
In her spare time, Ruffini judges American Kennel Club Pointing Dog Hunt Tests at the master, senior and junior levels and is a lifetime member of the Vizsla Club of America, which connects owners to the red-coated Vizsla – a Hungarian gundog built for long days in the field. She also belongs to the Finger Lakes German Shorthaired Pointer Club and the Preservation Association of the Southern Tier.