Kimberlee A. Musser, Ph.D.

Dr. Musser is the Chief of Bacterial Diseases which includes the Bacteriology Laboratory (reference identification of bacteria, bacterial meningitis testing, Legionella and pertussis testing and tickborne bacterial testing), the Foodborne Bacteriology Laboratory, the Mycobacteriology Laboratory, the Northeast Regional PulseNet Laboratory, and the Northeast Regional Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory. This laboratory provides diagnostic reference testing for the detection of various pathogenic bacteria in New York State. This testing includes the use of both molecular-based and culture-based methods. The molecular diagnostics include real-time PCR assays, DNA sequencing by pyrosequencing, Sanger and Whole-Genome Sequencing (WGS) as well as molecular typing using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) for analyzing outbreaks of foodborne, waterborne, and healthcare associated illness and source tracking.

Our laboratory is also involved in developing new molecular detection methods and researching sequence-based methods for bacterial pathogens including those aimed at direct primary specimen detection, characterization and typing. We are interested in molecular diagnostic assays that characterize the bacteria of interest to determine if genes that confer pathogenicity, antimicrobial resistance, or determine the serogroup are present.  This laboratory also has incorporated clinical reporting of whole-genome sequencing for comprehensive testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and comprehensive detection of antimicrobial resistance genes as well as utilization of NGS methods for prospective and retrospective investigations of outbreaks. New studies incorporating the use of long read NGS, highly multiplexed real-time PCR, direct specimen NGS and automated bioinformatic analysis are also in progress.