New faculty spotlight: St Patrick Reid

St Patrick Reid, Ph.D., is a new faculty member at UNMC.

• Name: St Patrick Reid, Ph.D.
• Hometown: I was born in Kingston, Jamaica, but raised in Brooklyn, N.Y.
• Title and department at UNMC: Assistant professor, UNMC Department of Pathology and Microbiology

Research/professional interests:

• Host-pathogen interactions
• Understanding the molecular pathogenesis of emerging viral pathogens, including Ebola, Chikungunya, Nipah and Zika virus

How I fell in love with my profession:
I told my mom I wanted to be a scientist in the third grade, so in that way I was always on track. Pinning down an area in science however, took more time. I would say fell in like with microbiology sometime around my sophomore year in college and fell in love with virology in graduate school at Mount Sinai. My Ph.D. adviser was new, and I was his first student, so that allowed us to work very closely together. That really helped to develop my interest in Ebola virus research and more generally in molecular virology.

My early worked focused on understanding how the VP35 and VP24 proteins of Ebola virus functioned as an antagonist of the cellular antiviral pathway. This was very interesting work because at the core we were trying to understand, in part, the basic molecular mechanisms that allow Ebola to be such a highly pathogenic agent. These studies were critical because they allowed us to gain greater insight into Ebola virus pathogenesis. Since my work on Ebola, I also have worked on other viruses, such as Chikungunya, a virus transmitted by mosquitos that recently made its way to the Americas and causes pretty debilitating joint pains. Also, I’ve worked on Nipah virus, a virus transmitted by bats, that, while not in this part of the world, might be familiar to some because it was the basis for the movie “Contagion.”

At UNMC, my lab will focus on understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying these viral pathogens. It is important to note that while much progress is being made, particularly in Ebola and Zika research, there is no approved or licensed therapeutics for treating these agents. Therefore, work aimed at understanding how these viruses work will greatly benefit the development of effective therapeutic strategies.

Degrees:

• B.S., University of Rochester, Rochester, N.Y.
• M.S., University of Georgia, Athens
• Ph.D, Mount Sinai School of Biological Sciences, New York, N.Y.

Three things people may not know about me:

• While I love American football and support the Giants, I’m a bigger fan of soccer, where I am a Chelsea supporter.
• I used to do a lot of spoken word shows in graduate school, and I hope to get back into that in Omaha.
• I’m a big fan of the Surrealist Period.