Charles Chiu, M.D./Ph.D. is Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases at University of California, San Francisco, Director of the UCSF-Abbott Viral Diagnostics and Discovery Center (VDDC), and Associate Director of the UCSF Clinical Microbiology Laboratory. Chiu currently heads a translational research laboratory focused on next-generation sequencing assay development for infectious disease diagnostics and investigation of emerging pathogens, including Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme disease), enterovirus D68 in acute flaccid myelitis, and Zika virus. He is also developing new technologies such as nanopore sequencing and RNA-Seq transcriptome profiling to develop predictive models using machine learning for diagnosis of infections based on a patient’s host response. Chiu is the principal investigator of a grant funded by the Translational Institute for Space Health (TRISH) and NASA to develop a sequencing platform for real-time monitoring of infections and host response in astronauts in-flight on the International Space Station (ISS).
His work is also supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Abbott Laboratories, Department of Defense, philanthropic grants (Charles and Helen Schwab and Steven and Alexandra Cohen Foundations), and the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine. Dr. Chiu has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications, holds over 15 patents and patent applications, and serves on the scientific advisory board for Mammoth Biosciences, Inc.