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Branch Chief
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Atlanta, GA, United States
Ellen Kersh, PhD is the Branch Chief of the STD Laboratory Reference and Research Branch (SLRRB) in the Division of STD Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She oversees laboratory research on multiple STIs, focusing on novel diagnostic assay development and monitoring of antibiotic resistance.
She received a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Biochemistry from the Freie Universitaet Berlin, Germany, and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. Her postdoctoral studies were with Dr. Rafi Ahmed at the Emory Vaccine Center on memory immune responses to acute and chronic infection. Dr. Kersh came to CDC in 2006 to join the HIV Laboratory Branch. There, she conducted studies on Pre-exposure Prophylaxis for HIV prevention, on HIV infection risk during STI co-infection, and on mucosal and reproductive risk factors for STI acquisition.
In her current role, Dr. Kersh oversees CDC’s national and international public health laboratory activities for syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, and Mycoplasma genitalium. She focuses on access to testing and other diagnostics issues and on supporting surveillance and epidemiological studies. Her branch leads the effort to build national laboratory capacity for gonorrhea drug resistance testing with the regional Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory Network.
Dr. Kersh participates in CDC committees for science management, in national HIV and STD conference organizing committees, and in CLSI subcommittees. During the COVID-19 response, Dr. Kersh was deployed to the HHS Testing and Diagnostics Work Group in Washington, DC. She contributed to solving diagnostics supply challenges, to the development of contracted testing programs and to testing guidance for point-of-care and self-testing uses.
I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
Friday, October 21, 2022
8:00 AM – 9:00 AM US ET
Friday, October 21, 2022
8:30 AM – 9:00 AM US ET