Virginia C. Hughes received her Bachelor of Science in Medical and Research Technology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore; Master of Science in Biomedical Research from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and PhD in Public Policy and Public Administration from Auburn University. She is the recipient of two national research awards. In 2002, she was awarded the Fenwal Research Award for work conducted at the NIH Department of Transfusion Medicine for work on the prototype for the ImmuKnow assay analyzing the efficacy of employing phytohemagglutinin A for stimulating CD4 cells toward release of ATP using bioluminescence in immunocompromised patients, non-immunocompromised patients, and a control group. In 2003, she was awarded the Graduate Student Award from the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science for thesis work representing the first use of recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein 2 (rHuBMP-2) on three populations of hematopoietic cells from umbilical cord blood. She has published book chapters and research articles in the areas of hematology, immunohematology, and immunology.