Research Focus
Dr. Alfson received her Ph.D. from UT Health San Antonio and then worked as a postdoctoral scientist at Texas Biomed, with a focus on investigating the evolution of filoviruses and alphaviruses in order to characterize the biological effects of viral evolution. She has fifteen years of experience researching high consequence pathogens at BSL-3 and BSL-4, and a background in molecular biology, virology, virus characterization, assay optimization, and animal model development. Her current work supports studies designed to advance vaccine and therapy development for high consequence pathogens, within the Applied Science and Innovation group. A primary objective of these studies is to characterize disease in rodents and nonhuman primates, following exposure via different routes, to develop well-characterized models that we then use for efficacy testing of therapeutics and vaccines. She serves as Study Director on model development and efficacy testing studies, that are performed following either Good Laboratory Practices or the FDA Animal Rule guidance. Dr. Alfson oversees in vitro staff working at all levels of containment to support these studies, with a focus on supervising the virology support group that performs infectious virus in vitro work.
Inside the Lab
Dr. Alfson coordinates and conducts experiments performed under the Maximum Containment Contract Research program directed by Dr. Ricardo Carrion. The team uses the maximum containment Biosafety Level 4 (ABSL-4) laboratory to safely study high consequence pathogens and follows rigorous quality standards to assure data quality and integrity.
Filoviruses are negative stranded RNA viruses known to infect humans and non-human primates (NHPs) with severe health consequences, including death. There is no FDA approved therapeutic or vaccine for filovirus infections. Filovirus vaccine and therapeutic studies often comply with the “FDA Animal Rule”, which requires the animal model used be well characterized and adequate for demonstration of efficacy. Our work aims to develop these well-characterized animal models and then use the models to provide advanced preclinical development of candidate vaccine and treatments for Filovirus disease.
Dr. Alfson has also worked on generating and characterizing virus stocks and lab assays, for use in these studies. In addition to her work in the lab, she prepares study protocols and interprets, analyzes, documents, and reports results for studies performed in collaboration with government and private Sponsors. She also acts as a study director, which involves overall responsibility for the technical conduct of a study following good laboratory practice (GLP) regulations.
Main Technologies and Methods Used
- Deep sequencing
- Quantitative PCR
- Plaque assay
- ELISA
- Pharmacokinetics Analysis