• Ph.D., Michigan State University, 1985

Research Interests: Even though vaccination programs have greatly reduced the incidence of measles in developed countries, measles still causes about 1 million deaths a year in developing countries. Also, sporadic outbreaks and some sustained epidemics of measles continue to occur in countries with high vaccination rates such as the United States. Research within the Measles Virus Section of the CDC is committed to achieving a better understanding of protective immunity to and pathogenesis of measles virus infections as well as an assessment of the genetic and antigenic variation of wild-type measles viruses and vaccine strains. The long term goals of the Section are improved measles vaccines and diagnostic reagents that will contribute to global measles eradication efforts. Current projects include molecular/genetic analysis of wild measles viruses and strains associated with persistent infections, comparison of the immune response elicited by vaccine versus wild-type viruses, evaluation of measles virus replication, creation of improved measures of protective immunity, including the development of state-of-the-art diagnostic assays for laboratory and field use.