Mitigating ongoing pandemic risks
Our lab focuses on characterizing novel viruses to understand how they cause disease in humans.
The COVID-19 pandemic will not be the last, as human populations remain vulnerable to newly emerging viruses. Although advancements in viral discovery have expanded the number of known viral sequences, many fundamental questions about viral biology can only be answered through isolation and propagation of viruses in the lab.
Andrew Janowski grew up in Middleton, Wisconsin, and graduated from Middleton High School and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During his undergraduate studies, he developed a passion for research, working with Professor Gary Lyons on characterizing a novel protein, Axotrophin/March7. He stayed at the University of Wisconsin for medical school, graduating with research honors.
He then moved to Pittsburgh to complete his pediatric training at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, where he discovered his interest in infectious diseases and virology. In 2013, he moved to St. Louis to begin a clinical fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases and established his virology research program under the mentorship of David Wang, PhD.
During his fellowship, several cases of encephalitis due to astroviruses were published. Together with David Wang, Janowski was the first to isolate and propagate astrovirus VA1 in cell culture.
Janowski has since founded a lab focused on the discovery and characterization of novel viruses. He is also a dedicated teacher, having received the Outstanding Fellow Teaching Award from the Department of Pediatrics.
