Sivakumar Periasamy, DVM, PhD, DACVM

Veterinarian-scientist specialized in animal diseases, zoonotic diseases (One Health), pathology and pathobiology of diseases, immunology and infection immunity, disease diagnostics, and discovering prophylactics (vaccines) and/or therapeutic interventions for infectious diseases

As a board-certified veterinary microbiologist, my primary duty involves animal disease diagnosis – overseeing Clinical Microbiology Lab testing and prompt reporting the test results to clients/veterinarians/animal owners. To facilitate a rapid and accurate diagnosis of animal diseases, I work on developing new diagnostic assays and incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI)/machine learning tools in the Clinical Microbiology Lab testing. Our team work on improving the conventional tests and developing/optimizing new molecular tests such as qPCR, Next Generation Sequencing (NGS)and CRISPR platforms. In addition, we work on developing point-of care (POC) tests, using molecular platforms, for detection of animal diseases at farm-side or veterinary clinics.

As a trained pathologist and microbiologist, I am interested in studying host-pathogen interaction, infection immunity, discovering prophylactic and/or therapeutic interventions, and developing rapid diagnostics for infectious diseases. In our lab, we have four primary goals: 1) to understand the protective versus pathologic immunity during lung diseases, 2) to harness immunologic information for developing effective and safe cure or immuno-modulatory interventions that enhance protective immunity but limits the pathologic immunity, 3) to develop novel diagnostics for rapid and accurate detection of infectious diseases, and 4) to harness the latest computational methods (e.g., artificial intelligence and machine learning) for enhancing the diagnostic test capabilities in the Clinical Microbiology Laboratories. In addition, being a veterinarian with special interest on infectious diseases of animals and humans, I am dedicated for contributing towards One Health program. We study pathophysiology of fatal zoonotic diseases to develop novel methods for early diagnosis and prediction of future pandemics.