Emmie de Wit is a Dutch-American virologist. She is chief of the molecular pathogenesis unit at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories. Her research combines pathogenesis studies with detailed molecular analyses to identify molecular determinants of severe respiratory tract disease within the virus and the host.

Education

Emmie de Wit is from the Netherlands. She received her Ph.D. in virology in 2006 from Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her research focused on the replication, pathogenesis and transmission of

influenza A virus ''Influenza A virus'' (''IAV'') causes influenza in birds and some mammals, and is the only species of the genus ''Alphainfluenzavirus'' of the virus family ''Orthomyxoviridae''. Strain (biology)#Microbiology or virology, Strains of all subtypes ...

. Her dissertation was titled ''Molecular determinants of influenza A virus replication and pathogenesis''.

Career

In 2009, de Wit moved to Heinz Feldmann's Laboratory of Virology at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) to research in the biosafety level 4 laboratory. Here, she focused on the pathogenesis of and countermeasures against Nipah virus, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus and the 1918 H1N1 influenza A virus ( Spanish flu). In 2012, she received a Fellows Award for Research Excellence (FARE) for her research on modeling the transmission cycle of the deadly Nipah virus. From 2014 to 2015, de Wit spent 4 months in a field lab in Monrovia, Liberia in charge of patient diagnostics for several Ebola Treatment Units in the area, to help contain the

Ebola virus epidemic in Liberia An epidemic of Ebola virus disease occurred in Liberia from 2014 to 2015, along with the neighbouring countries of Guinea and Sierra Leone. The first cases of virus were reported by late March 2014. The Ebola virus, a biosafety level four path ...

. Currently, de Wit's research aims to combine pathogenesis studies with detailed molecular analyses to identify molecular determinants of severe respiratory tract disease within the virus and the host. She is chief of the molecular pathogenesis unit at RML.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:de Wit, Emmie Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) National Institutes of Health people 21st-century American biologists 21st-century American women scientists American medical researchers Women medical researchers American virologists Women virologists Expatriate academics in the United States Dutch women scientists 21st-century Dutch scientists Dutch virologists Erasmus University Rotterdam alumni Dutch emigrants to the United States Living people