The main research focus of the rabies laboratory is developing and improving rabies diagnostic tools. Some current projects include validating a real-time RT- PCR assay for use as a confirmatory test to the dFAT, a real time RT-PCR assay capable of typing different rabies virus variants circulating the the United States, and whole genome sequencing. Additional research programs in our laboratory focus on studying rabies in bats within the laboratory and in field environments.

Our interests include:

1. Determining if the silver hair bat rabies virus is more pathogenic than other bat rabies viruses
2. Investigating the frequency with which big and/or little brown bats become infected with the silver hair bat rabies virus and how it relates to the potential for human exposure
3. Examining the rabies virus genome of bats infected with a heterologous (non-host) rabies virus
4. Understanding the impact of white nose syndrome (WNS) in rabies virus maintenance and its impact on indigenous bat populations