Antimicrobial Resistance Postdoctoral Fellow
Wadsworth Center/NYSDOH/APHL
Disclosure: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
I am an Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL)-Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Antimicrobial Resistance (AR) Postdoctoral Fellow working at the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH). After majoring in microbiology at the University of Maryland, I have continued to study pathogenic microorganisms in a variety of contexts — pursuing research on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) at the National Institutes of Health and studying aspects of the gut microbiome and its potential impacts on colorectal cancer at Johns Hopkins University. As an APHL Fellow at the Wadsworth Center, I carry out routine testing to detect and monitor emerging carbapenem resistance found in clinical isolates and colonization screenings. I also conduct applied research to improve molecular diagnostics for carbapenem-resistant organisms (CROs), to understand the spread of CROs better, and to establish CRO prevalence in high-risk populations (e.g., solid organ transplant recipients). From March to June 2020, I volunteered in the NYSDOH COVID-19 surge capacity response, where I participated in all aspects of the Virology Section molecular testing workflow and in the Diagnostic Immunology immunoassay used to test the serum of potential convalescent plasma donors for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.
