Kara Mitchell, PhD

Dr. Kara Mitchell joined the Wadsworth Center in 2010 as a Wadsworth Center Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) fellow.  Her postdoctoral work at the Wadsworth Center included training in the Bloodborne Viruses Laboratory, the Biodefense Laboratory, and the Mycobacteriology Laboratory.

In 2013, Dr. Mitchell joined the Bacteriology Laboratory as a Research Scientist. The Wadsworth Center Bacteriology Laboratory serves as the New York State (NYS) public health reference laboratory providing bacterial identification and characterization. The laboratory’s unique public health services for reference level identification include conventional and molecular microbiological methods. The laboratory uses applied research to investigate the latest technological advances as well as to maintain the capabilities necessary for identifying and characterizing both unusual bacterial pathogens as well as emerging infectious diseases. The laboratory develops new molecular assays for public health purposes including real-time PCR, and DNA sequencing. Also, of interest are molecular diagnostic assays that molecularly serotype or characterize bacteria to determine if genes that confer pathogenicity, express toxins, or determine if antibiotic resistance genes are present.