As a research ship, there are a lot of departments of research; the study of space viruses is one of those research departments! Congratulations doctor, you have been selected to study and treat various types of viruses, and create valuable vaccines. So grab your latex gloves and get your breath mask on and hole yourself up in Virology, it is time to perform some disease research.
Bare minimum requirements: If an epidemic breaks out aboard the ship, don't be the source of it.
Unlike Robert Nevile, you will not have a huge kick ass adventure while curing diseases. You will have a boring time, and likely fuck up constantly. Just make sure the Chemist or the Chief Medical Officer are around (and attentive) or you won't be able to cure uncommon diseases and might have an outbreak.
Primarily, this is your job. Find a batch of virus, inject a monkey, and record the results. Then cure the monkey.
If you're concerned about the monkeys and don't want to have a pen full of contagion conveniently sitting around, move a single monkey to one of your isolation rooms and treat/infect them there. You can also use this as an easy way to keep all your cures localized and in a single sample, giving you an expedient route to creating the vaccines on the Pandemic 2000.
Take your sample, put that in a beaker and load it up on the Pandemic in your main room. Congratulations. You've found a vaccine.
You can also see the cure to a disease using your Pandemic machine, and reproduce it if there is an active culture in the blood, for whatever reason.
Viruses can get loose on the ship many ways: random events, traitorous activity, and the most common way of all: your own incompetence. If you accidentally infect someone with a harmful virus, well, there is not much you can do except quarantine, treat, and ensure they aren't infectious before releasing them. Make sure only people that know exactly what they're doing can enter your room. Warn people beforehand that you're conducting experiments and remember to vaccinate yourself once you research a disease.
Viruses can be spread most easily through blood. People with viruses will often spread blood everywhere. Do the math. Then do your job and clean up the blood.
You are able to create your own diseases with various symptoms, stats and bonuses. Read the Infection and You manual for a guide!
Viruses don't always have to be something to be avoided. With a bit of work you can engineer friendly viruses that come with a number of beneficial symptoms, such as eliminating the need to eat, or even one that lets the body regenerate its own health. Just make sure you clear it with the CMO and let the ship know what your friendly virus does before releasing it, or you might find yourself at the end of a pitchfork.
Virology can turn you into just as much as a superhuman as Genetics.
Coughing as a symptom makes people drop grabs and can thus be used to make changelings miserable as they keep dropping absorbs.
A perfectly made virus blend from virology can heal you at a slow, but decent rate, even out of critical condition. A person can only be infected by three viruses at a time, I believe. A virus blend that has three instances of the following symptoms will heal you from crit (assuming there is no other source of damage present), protect you from suffocation, and allow you to run at max speed even if you have a bulky exosuit with active magboots. Toxic Filter, Toxic Compensation, Self-Respiration, and Stimulant. Add Weight Even to one of the strains to grant hunger immunity, and something else such as Eternal Youth to give yourself a third unique strain. Matching symptoms in different virus strains will stack with each other.
Viruses with different, unique symptoms can be mixed together in a beaker to produce a strain with some or all of the symptoms of component strains.
If you actually do manage to make a beneficial virus and want to distribute it, have a superior vet it and ask them to announce it to the ship via their desk.
If you get denied a crate (probably more than half your rounds), ask Engineering for a share of their plasma or ask the XO for mining access so you can get your own plasma. (This is the only reliable way you are going to get plasma!)
If you get a virus with unwanted symptoms, use your dropper set to transfer one unit of synaptizine to your virus. Your 30 unit bottle will be good for a full 30 uses!
If you are a virologist who wants the most from a beneficial virus, but cannot fit all the desired symptoms into one strain, consider removing “Weight Even” from your symptoms if you already included stimulant. All that hunger does is reduce a person's speed; Stimulant totally negates all slowdowns, and thus this renders Weight Even redundant.
Being a traitor is where a dangerous job like this one really shines. Make sure you get the heads of staff to crack a virus crate open for you, or use a traitor item on it to pop it open yourself. Brain Rot seems to be the best way to screw over the crew, and if people wonder why you are in a spot, mumble something unintelligible. (even though a good virologist would've cured himself already).
Releasing a pandemic is a good way to cause chaos, creating a convenient cover for illicit activities. As an added bonus, then curing the disease and eradicating it from the ship is a good way to get in the good graces of the crew, further protecting you from any suspicion. As always, protecting yourself from the disease is most important. Be conservative, however. If the crew finds out that EVERY disease has been somehow released, they'll be out for your blood. Releasing diseases when not a traitor is a great way to be banned!
If for some reason you don't want to spread terrible death everywhere, your office is secluded and difficult to get into, making it a common base for gang or cult activity.