Michael McIntosh, Ph.D.

My scientific career has spanned basic and applied research in human and veterinary medicine in academia and government. Dedicated to the control and prevention of infectious diseases through research and education, my research combines advanced molecular biology and bioinformatics with traditional microbiology to reveal connections between infectious agents and diseases of unknown etiology or emerging epidemiology. Emphasis is on development of computational tools for analysis of conserved structural features of RNA and applications of transcriptomics and non-biased molecular sequencing to detect and characterize potential pathogens, investigate host-microbial interactions, and reveal underlying mechanisms of disease as well as targets for diagnosis or intervention. With the USDA, my laboratory’s development of advanced molecular methods for virus detection, including panviral microarrays and next-generation sequencing led to impactful examples of disease detection and response on national and international scales, most notably, the discovery of domestic swine as a host for Ebola. Now at the University of Florida, my research employs RNA-seq and capture-seq platforms to study transcriptional networks associated with gammaherpesvirus infections, and to discover new viruses in human diseases of unknown etiology or emerging epidemiology, at the human-animal or vector interface, and in the context of immunocompromise or cancer. In this regard, I combine virus discovery and transcriptomics to reveal new diagnostic markers, host factors contributing to disease, and targets for neutralizing antibody epitopes in virus surface proteins for the development of vaccines and antibody therapeutics.