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Magdalena Pasarica fights on the front lines of America’s battle with obesity, and her inroads into enemy territory are earning her headlines around the world. A researcher at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, she has discovered a link between human fat cells and a virus—a discovery so significant it landed her in every major scientific journal in her field, not to mention media ranging from the BBC to USA Today.

It’s pretty impressive stuff, especially considering that Pasarica is just 29-years-old. But then, Pasarica is not your average gen-Xer.

A native of Romania, she was already an M.D. before coming to America to work on her Ph.D., which she completed in four years. She is gentle and soft-spoken but conveys a bristling intelligence when she speaks. Though her demeanor is understated, she has a passion for her work that’s as infectious as the virus she studies.

“Magdalena is very enthusiastic, and her energy is contagious,” says Susan Newman, a friend and fellow research associate at Pennington.

Last summer, Pasarica presented her team’s research findings that established a link between a common virus and human fat cells. The breakthrough doesn’t mean the virus—which is the same one that causes pink eye and respiratory infections—is the sole or definitive cause of obesity in humans. But there’s enough evidence to establish a correlation between the two.

“I know that obesity has multiple causes, but I believe that one of these causes could be this virus,” Pasarica explains. “Not all obesity, mind you, but a percent of it. We get too many e-mails from people who tell us they don’t overeat and they exercise and still they can’t lose weight. This has to be part of the explanation.”

Pasarica’s research team injected human stem cells grown in a lab with the common virus known as adenovirus-36. Almost immediately, the cells were transformed into fat-storing cells called adipocytes.

A previous study of more than 500 obese and normal-weight adults showed that 30% of the obese adults had previously been infected with this virus, while only 11% of those in the normal-weight range had.

“It’s a very exciting finding,” she says.

Pasarica has been on the hunt for a viral link to obesity for several years. She first got the itch to do research into obesity after earning her medical degree in Romania. As a physician, she felt she could only help one patient at a time, while as a researcher she could potentially help thousands or more. She wanted to do something to make a difference.

“I felt my life should have a purpose,” she says. “That’s why I picked something that would matter—not just for me but for other people, too.”

The United States offered the only chance to conduct meaningful research at the Ph.D. level, so she sought out the work of Nikhil Dhurandhar, a renowned scientist in the field of obesity research then at Wayne State University in Indiana. Several years earlier he had linked the virus with fat cells in chickens.

Pasarica was fascinated by his findings, so she packed her bags and moved to study under him.

Pennington and its international reputation as a leader in the field of nutrition and obesity research convinced Dhurandhar to move to Baton Rouge, and Pasarica also came to complete her post-doctoral research.

“She really has this desire to get it right,” Dhurandhar says of his protégé. “She will work hard and if it doesn’t come out right she will try again and call me and ask for my suggestions until she can fix it. That’s very useful for our field—to have that zeal and the grit to do things right.”

Pasarica applies that determination to everything she tackles. While she puts in long hours at the lab, she also travels extensively, presenting papers about her research. Even as a child she was always the overachiever, always at the head of the class. Her parents in Romania were unfazed when they started getting congratulatory phone calls from friends who heard about or read the recent news reports of Pasarica’s discovery.

“My dad said, ‘I was expecting something like this because you’ve always been tops in everything you do,’” she says.

But Pasarica is not all work and no play. On the contrary, she has become an avid fan of country music, and also enjoys ballroom dancing, tango and salsa. She is also fond of her new home and the many friends she has made here. Southeast Louisiana, with its traditions and strong family ties, reminds her of Romania.

“It’s very much like Europe,” she says. “People are very friendly and there are places to go dancing.”

Pasarica hopes to stay here and continue her research once her post-doc work is done. Among the draws is the fact Pennington is at the world forefront in the type of research she does, a fact that goes largely unnoticed in Baton Rouge. Yet at 29, she has much time and many options in front of her.

“Places like Harvard or Yale, they are very prestigious,” she says. “But when you talk about obesity research you have the best resources and the best opportunity here at Pennington, so at this point this seems like the best place to be … but we’ll see.”

Dr. Magdalena Pasarica of Pennington presented her team’s research findings correlating a common virus and obesity.