Kirsten St. George

Biography

Kirsten St. George is a clinical professor of biomedical sciences at the School of Public Health and the Laboratory of Viral Diseases (LVD) at the Wadsworth Center. The Laboratory of Viral Diseases includes the Virology General Laboratory, Viral Encephalitis Laboratory, Enteric Virus Laboratory, Antiviral Resistance Program, Vaccine Preventable Diseases Reference Laboratory, National Influenza Surveillance Reference Center, and the Special Projects Unit. St. George directs the research and development work of the Special Projects Unit, has general oversight of the service laboratories, and is the Principal Investigator for the Vaccine Preventable Diseases and National Influenza Surveillance laboratories, both of which are federally funded reference centers. The LVD detects and characterizes human pathogenic viruses for surveillance, reference testing and the investigation of outbreaks with a combination of classical and molecular techniques. It is a WHO Collaborating Laboratory for Influenza, federally funded for both hospitalized and primary care influenza surveillance. Numerous molecular assays have been developed within the laboratory including those for respiratory viruses, enteric viruses and arboviruses. The Antiviral Resistance Program includes surveillance, testing, assay development and applied research on drug-resistant influenza viruses. Current ventures in the Special Projects Unit include the NIH SBIR Phase 2 grant-funded development of a diagnostic array for encephalitis and genomic evolution studies in adenoviruses using next generation/whole genomic sequencing. More recently, the unit is investigating genomic evolution in Zika virus with new, highly-automated, rapid next generation sequencing methods.

Research Interest

Dr. St. George is Chief of the Laboratory of Viral Diseases (LVD), which includes the Virology General Laboratory, Viral Encephalitis Laboratory, Enteric Virus Laboratory, Antiviral Resistance Program, Vaccine Preventable Diseases Reference Laboratory, National Influenza Surveillance Reference Center, and the Special Projects Unit. Dr. St. George directs the research and development work of the Special Projects Unit, has general oversight of the service laboratories, and is the Principal Investigator for the Vaccine Preventable Diseases and National Influenza Surveillance laboratories, both of which are federally funded reference centers. The LVD detects and characterizes human pathogenic viruses for surveillance, reference testing and the investigation of outbreaks with a combination of classical and molecular techniques. It is a WHO Collaborating Laboratory for Influenza, federally funded for both hospitalized and primary care influenza surveillance. Numerous molecular assays have been developed within the laboratory including those for respiratory viruses, enteric viruses and arboviruses. The Antiviral Resistance Program includes surveillance, testing, assay development and applied research on drug-resistant influenza viruses. Current ventures in the Special Projects Unit include the NIH SBIR Phase 2 grant-funded development of a diagnostic array for encephalitis and genomic evolution studies in adenoviruses using next generation/whole genomic sequencing. More recently, the unit is investigating genomic evolution in Zika virus with new, highly-automated, rapid next generation sequencing methods.