Chiu Lab

Chiu Laboratory

Research in the Chiu laboratory explores (1) the replication, biology, and pathogenesis of human cardioviruses and (2) detection of known and novel viral agents in acute diseases suspected to have an infectious etiology.

We recently reported in PNAS the discovery of a diverse group of cardioviruses in children with respiratory and diarrheal disease. These cardioviruses were detected using the Virochip microarray, a pan-viral microarray that contains ~20,000 probes to ~1,800 viruses. Current research efforts are directed towards culturing and examining the replication characteristics of the virus, as well as assess its seroprevalence in the community and in the setting of acute or chronic disease.

We are actively validating the Virochip and “deep” sequencing for use in clinical diagnostics and in outbreak investigation. Current projects include (1) a prospective longitudinal study of respiratory infections in immunocompromised patients at UCSF, (2) a metagenomics analysis of H1N1 influenza A strains, and (3) design of a respiratory / stool subtyping microarray for use in diagnosis of acute respiratory infections and gastroenteritis.