Kirsten St. George, Ph.D.
Wadsworth Center
Kirsten St. George, Ph.D., is Director of Virology and Chief of the Laboratory of Viral Diseases (LVD) at the Wadsworth Center, as well as a clinical professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences in the College of Integrated Health Sciences at the University at Albany.
The LVD includes service laboratories and research teams focused on general virology, viral encephalitis, enteric viruses, vaccine-preventable diseases and antiviral resistance. The laboratory detects and characterizes viruses for clinical, reference and surveillance purposes and supports outbreak investigations and studies of emerging pathogens. Testing employs both classical and molecular techniques—many developed in-house—and the lab also manages complex public health data reporting and provides training for graduate students, fellows and international laboratory trainees.
St. George serves as principal investigator for national reference centers for influenza surveillance, vaccine-preventable diseases and influenza antiviral resistance, with additional federal and corporate support for surveillance and diagnostic development programs. She is also the Scientific Director of the New York State Sequencing Consortium, composed of 4 academic medical centers and the Wadsworth Center, and serves as laboratory lead for the New York State Wastewater Surveillance Center of Excellence. Within the LVD, she directs the research and development group, which develops new testing platforms and chemistries and oversees genomic characterization and evolutionary studies of multiple viruses.
St. George serves on several national and international advisory committees and boards and is the author of more than 200 publications. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and has received numerous honors, including five New York State Commissioner Awards for outbreak response; the 2017 International Career Achievement Award in Diagnostic Virology from the Pan American Society for Clinical Virology; the 2018 University of South Australia Alumni Award for distinguished innovation and pioneering work; and the 2025 Gold Standard Award for technical advancement of public health laboratory science from the Association of Public Health Laboratories.
The LVD includes service laboratories and research teams focused on general virology, viral encephalitis, enteric viruses, vaccine-preventable diseases and antiviral resistance. The laboratory detects and characterizes viruses for clinical, reference and surveillance purposes and supports outbreak investigations and studies of emerging pathogens. Testing employs both classical and molecular techniques—many developed in-house—and the lab also manages complex public health data reporting and provides training for graduate students, fellows and international laboratory trainees.
St. George serves as principal investigator for national reference centers for influenza surveillance, vaccine-preventable diseases and influenza antiviral resistance, with additional federal and corporate support for surveillance and diagnostic development programs. She is also the Scientific Director of the New York State Sequencing Consortium, composed of 4 academic medical centers and the Wadsworth Center, and serves as laboratory lead for the New York State Wastewater Surveillance Center of Excellence. Within the LVD, she directs the research and development group, which develops new testing platforms and chemistries and oversees genomic characterization and evolutionary studies of multiple viruses.
St. George serves on several national and international advisory committees and boards and is the author of more than 200 publications. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and has received numerous honors, including five New York State Commissioner Awards for outbreak response; the 2017 International Career Achievement Award in Diagnostic Virology from the Pan American Society for Clinical Virology; the 2018 University of South Australia Alumni Award for distinguished innovation and pioneering work; and the 2025 Gold Standard Award for technical advancement of public health laboratory science from the Association of Public Health Laboratories.