Bio-Rad Laboratories invites you to join us for scientific presentations and a roundtable discussion on SARS‑CoV‑2 Variant Surveillance by leading scientists in the fields of clinical virology, public health, and wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE). Learn more about how researchers Dr. Rick Nolte and Dr. Alex Greninger respond to the evolving changes in the SARS‑CoV‑2 virus using novel molecular testing methods. Hear how Dr. Rachel Noble has developed and implemented community-based detection using our sewer sheds.
This webinar is intended to provide real-world perspectives and facilitate conversations on the following topics:
- Identification of emerging viral variants using Next‑Gen Sequencing
- Methods and techniques used for community surveillance of variants
- Measures to support the public health response to the pandemic
In these unprecedented times, we can make the world a safer place by working together. Bio‑Rad strives to provide a variety of testing and research solutions to aid in the global goal of ending the COVID‑19 pandemic. This webinar and panel discussion is intended to disseminate timely information about technologies for SARS‑CoV‑2 surveillance and monitoring to assist researchers in these areas.
Frederick (Rick) S. Nolte, PhD
Professor and Vice Chair for Laboratory Medicine, Medical Director of Clinical Laboratories, and Molecular Pathology, at the Medical University of South Carolina
Frederick (Rick) S. Nolte, PhD, is currently Professor and Vice-Chair for Laboratory Medicine in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and Medical Director of Clinical Laboratories and Molecular Pathology at the Medical University of South Carolina. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Microbiology and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. Dr. Nolte completed his B.S. degree in biology at the University of Cincinnati and his PhD in medical microbiology at the Ohio State University. Dr. Nolte completed a postdoctoral fellowship in public health and medical laboratory microbiology at the University of Rochester and remained there as Associate Director of the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory. Prior to coming to MUSC in 2007, he spent 18 years at Emory University School of Medicine, where he was a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Director of the Clinical Microbiology, Molecular Diagnostic, and Serology Laboratories, Emory Medical Laboratories. He is active in and held positions of responsibility in the American Society for Microbiology, Association for Molecular Pathology, Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute, Infectious Diseases Society of America, American Society for Clinical Pathology, American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Pan American Society for Clinical Virology and College of American Pathologists. He has authored numerous book chapters, practice guidelines, and more than 120 peer-reviewed publications in clinical microbiology and molecular diagnostics. He has served on the scientific advisory boards and provided consulting services to many start-ups and established diagnostic companies. In addition, he has experience with FDA clinical trial work and served as a member and consultant to the CDRH FDA Microbiology Devices Panel, and has served on several NIH and CDC advisory panels.
Alexander (Alex) Greninger, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Assistant Director of Clinical Virology Laboratories, University of Washington
Alexander (Alex) Greninger MD/PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Assistant Director of the University of Washington clinical virology laboratories, and a board-certified clinical pathologist. Dr. Greninger earned an MS in Biological Sciences/Immunology from Stanford, an MPhil in Epidemiology from Cambridge (UK), an MD/PhD from UCSF, and completed his laboratory medicine residency at the University of Washington. At the University of Washington, he focuses on the genomic and proteomic characterization of various human viruses and bacteria, with a focus on respiratory viruses and human herpes viruses, and has already discovered several new human and animal viruses. His laboratory provided extensive support in the face of the COVID‑19 pandemic, developing COVID‑19 testing early in 2020, followed by expanding testing capacity for the University of Washington Virology laboratory to levels of 10,000 samples per day.
Rachel Noble, PhD
Professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Director of the Institute for the Environment at UNC-Chapel Hill
Rachel Noble, PhD, is a distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Director of the Institute for the Environment at UNC-Chapel Hill. Dr. Noble previously held a joint appointment between the University of Southern California’s Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies and the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project. She is specifically interested in the viral control of bacterial and algal populations in marine microbial food webs and the interplay among viruses and bacteria, including Bdellovibrio, phytoplankton, grazers, and biogeochemical cycling in estuarine and coastal marine environments. Her active research program bridges environmental microbiology and marine microbial ecology by implementing novel molecular techniques in applied and basic science. She has founded a new training program in molecular techniques for water quality managers and performed extensive work on water quality-related lawsuits on a national level. Her laboratory has developed rapid molecular techniques using digital PCR and qPCR for the assessment of indicator bacteria and pathogens in recreational settings, shellfish harvesting, and wastewater. The integration of real-time detection methods has been used for both pathogens and indicators as tools to create accurate hydrologic and probability-based models. The range of rapid water quality test methods developed has included tests for E. coli, Enterococcus, and Vibrio species. More recently, she has applied rapid molecular techniques to waste-water-based epidemiology (WBE) of COVID‑19.