J Kenneth Wickiser, PhD

  • Associate Professor of Epidemiology (in the Center for Infection and Immunity) at the Columbia University Medical Center

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Overview

J. Ken Wickiser is the Administrative Director for the Global Alliance for Preventing Pandemics (GAPP) and is dedicated to capacity building through workforce development and democratization of technology to provide public health professionals in the Global South every opportunity to independently identify and contain pathogen outbreaks. We focus on sharing sustainable technologies and best technical practices involving sequencing, serological, and rapid diagnostics tools so public health teams are poised to achieve their very different goals addressing their varied and evolving needs. We work closely with the US CDC, NIAID, WHO, GOARN, foundations dedicated to global health and medical equity, and local and regional ministries of health and education to address human health, and the ministries of livestock & fisheries to help address food security while fostering a culture of the open sharing of data.

Prior to joining GAPP and HDPFH as an associate professor, Dr. Wickiser served as a faculty member at West Point, where he was most recently the Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Biochemistry. As Associate Dean, Dr. Wickiser was responsible for the safe, legal, ethical, and appropriate conduct of research endeavors at West Point by students, staff, and faculty across all academic disciplines. He focused on building collaborative teams with leaders in supporting fields in academia, industry, and government.

Dr. Wickiser also served on the Collaborative Academic Institutional Review Board at West Point and was a member of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Biotechnology Community of Interest and the Engineering Biology Research Consortium’s Education Working Group.

Academic Appointments

  • Associate Professor of Epidemiology (in the Center for Infection and Immunity) at the Columbia University Medical Center

Administrative Titles

  • Administrative Director, Global Alliance for Preventing Pandemics (GAPP)

Credentials & Experience

Education & Training

  • BS, 1992 United States Military Academy
  • MS, 2001 University of Alabama
  • PhD, 2005 Yale University

Committees, Societies, Councils

Representative of Universities, Executive Committee (EXCOM), Countering Weapons of Mass Destructions (CWMD) OTA

Committee Member, US Department of Veterans Affairs Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses (RACGWVI)

Honors & Awards

2021, Superior Civilian Service Medal, Department of the Army

2021, Civilian Service Commendation Medal, Department of the Army

2018, DTRA Synthetic Biology Award (Department Award, PI of the iGEM team at West Point)

2017, Civilian Meritorious Service Medal, Department of the Army

2015, Karush Fellowship, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA.

Research

Our team develops new infectious disease diagnostic tools and engineers existing tools to perform more efficiently, inexpensively, reliably, and sustainably for clinicians and laboratorians in low-resource settings and organizations. We specialize in pathogen-focused metagenomics tools to assist the surveillance of known pathogens and the discovery of novel pathogenic viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites affecting human health, livestock, and wild animals. We are dedicated to the concept and processes of Diagnostic Network Optimization (DNO) which accounts for challenges with economics, logistics, infrastructure, instrumentation, and workforce development and maintenance while considering the needs of both wet-lab and bioinformatics (data) parts of the process of identifying pathogens in samples. We are driven to share technologies to assist teams to shift their focus from monitoring a single pathogen to identifying any pathogen in any sample - whether it be a human or animal clinical sample or an environmental sample like abattoir runoff, drinking water, or wastewater - simultaneously with one test.

Research Interests

  • Global Health
  • Infectious Diseases

Selected Publications

Armstrong M, Baker J, Trump J, Milner E, Wickiser JK, Cameron K, Clark N, Schwarting K, Brown T, Bailey D, James C, Nguyen C, Corrigan T. Structure-rheology elucidation of human blood via SPP framework and TEVP modeling. Korea-Australia Rheology Journal. 2021;33(1):45-63.

Thomas DM, Wickiser JK. Obesity and Nutrition: Physiological Studies. Handbook of Research Methods in Health Psychology, 1st Edition. 2020.

Eslinger M, Washington MA, Pekny C, Nepa N, Wickiser JK, Limbocker RA, Shanks GD. Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions and Military Hygiene at the United States Military Academy between 1890 and 1910. Mil Med. 2020;185(11-12):e2104-e2109.

Prebihalo SE, Ochoa Gs, Berrier KL, Skogerboe KJ, Cameron KL, Trump JR, Svoboda SJ, Wickiser JK, Synovec RE. Control-Normalized Fisher Ratio Analysis of Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry Data for Enhanced Biomarker Discovery in a Metabolomic Study of Orthopedic Knee-Ligament Injury. Anal Chem. 2020;92(23):15526-15533.

Beal J, Farny NG, Haddock-Angelli T, Selvarajah V, Baldwin GS, Buckley-Taylor R, Gershater M, Kiga D, Marken J, Sanchania V, Sison A, Workman CT, iGEM Interlab Study Contributors. Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density. Commun Biol. 2020;3(1):512.

Houston MN, O'Donovan KJ, Trump JR, Bordeur RM, McGinty GT, Wickiser JK, D'Lauro CJ, Jackson JC, Svoboda SJ, Susmarksi AJ, Broglio SP, McAllister TW, McCrea MA, Pasquina P, Cameron KL. Progress and Future Directions of the NCAA-DoD Concussion Assessment, Research, and Education (CARE) Consortium and Mind Matters Challenge at the US Service Academies. Front Neurol. 2020;11:542733.

Burpo FJ, Losch AR, Nagelli EA, Winter SJ, Bartolucci SF, McClure JP, Baker DR, Bui JK, Burns AR, O'Brien SF, Forcherio GT, Aikin BR, Healy KM, Remondelli MH, Mitropoulos AN, Richardson L, Wickier JK, Chu DD. A Salt-Templated Synthesis Method for Porous Platium-based Macrobeams and Macrotubes. J Vis Exp. 2020;18(159).

Weiss T, Zhu P, White H, Posner M, Wickiser JK, Washington MA, Barnhill J. Latent Lyme Disease Resulting in Chronic Arthritis and Early Career Termination in a United States Army Officer. Mil Med. 2019;184(7-8):e368-e370.

Cave JW, Wickiser JK, Mitropoulos AN. Progress in the development of olfactory-based bioelectronic chemosensors. Bionsens Bioelectron. 2019;123:211-222.

For a complete list of publications, please visit PubMed.gov

Global Health Activities

Active programs in the US, Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, DR Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malaysia, Taiwan, and other countries detailed on our GAPP LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/98881360/admin/page-posts/published/