The Chiu Lab at University of California, San Francisco has made numerous discoveries in the identification and characterization of emerging viral pathogens, and has pioneered cutting-edge genomic technologies for clinical and public health applications.
We are focused on the development and validation of metagenomic next-generation sequencing and host response profiling assays for clinical diagnosis of infections. We strongly believe that broad dissemination of these emerging tests will accelerate timely and actionable diagnoses and result in improved clinical outcomes and survival for critically ill patients.
Some ongoing projects in the laboratory include (1) identification of host biomarkers of pediatric hyperinflammatory syndromes such as multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), (2) RNA gene expression assays for differential diagnosis of acute or chronic Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections, (3) metagenomic sequencing to determine the cause of emerging outbreaks, (4) characterization of the virome in healthy and sick individuals, and (5) clinical validation of agnostic metagenomic assays for pathogen detection from multiple body fluid sample types.