Nathan Grubaugh joined the faculty at Yale School of Public Health in 2018. Before going to graduate school, he spent ~7 years working in the biotech industry doing toxicology studies, monitoring food production lines for pathogens, and developing early phase vaccine candidates. He earned his MS in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University (2011) while conducting research at the NIH and the US Army Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (focus on mosquito-borne virus surveillance). Grubaugh earned his PhD in microbiology from Colorado State University in 2016 (focus on West Nile virus evolution), and went on to be a postdoctoral fellow at The Scripps Research Institute to study the 2015-2017 Zika virus epidemic. Building on these experiences, the Grubaugh Lab uses genomics to determine the emergence risk and to track the spread of mosquito-borne viruses, like Zika, chikungunya, dengue, and West Nile. Specifically, the lab 1) sequences viruses during outbreaks for epidemiological investigations (genomic epidemiology), 2) determines the disease phenotype and transmission fitness of novel virus mutations that occur during outbreaks (functional genomics), and 3) maps the evolutionary pathways that a virus may take to adapt to a new environment (experimental evolution). To do these studies, which include expertise in field work, computational biology, and laboratory experimentation, the Grubaugh Lab is building a diverse team and collaborates with many groups from around the world. Their goals are to integrate genomic data into surveillance and response programs to better prevent and control future mosquito-borne virus outbreaks. Read more about their work at grubaughlab.com.