People

Dr. Cristina Tato is the Director of the Rapid Response group at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub where she oversees planning and implementation of activities aimed at strengthening public health capacity and global emergency response efforts to epidemics. Her background is in infectious disease immunology, cytokine biology and systems immunology methods for studying human health and disease, and for evaluating vaccine efficacy.

Dr. Vida Ahyong is a Scientist on the Rapid Response team at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub with a background in malaria genomics, host-pathogen interactions, bacterial metabolism, and bioinformatics. Vida is training scientists around the world to use new tools and technologies to identify and detect pathogens through metagenomic sequencing.

Dr. Manu Vanaerschot is a Scientist on the Rapid Response team of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub where he focuses on the use of metagenomic sequencing for outbreak detection and research. He has a background in genomics and cell-based assays for malaria and leishmaniasis treatment failure, drug resistance and drug discovery research with a strong focus on capacity building.

Maira Phelps serves as the Clinical Research Coordinator for the Rapid Response team. She manages clinical study operations and logistics, and supports the capacity building efforts for next-generation sequencing in global health. Maira helps implement activities to strengthen local and global emergency response efforts to epidemics, and is committed to supporting the network of genomic hubs around the world for human health and the health of communities.

Lusajo Mwakibete is a Research Associate on the Rapid Response team. Lusajo is an aspiring molecular biologist who joined the team after graduating from Pomona College. His work focuses on performing metagenomic sequencing studies, helping to develop methods and protocols and performing data analysis.

Dr. Patrick Ayscue is a Biosecurity Sr. Fellow at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub. His background is in veterinary medicine and was formerly with the CDC as an Epidemic Intelligence Officer.  While at the CDC he designed surveillance systems and managed outbreak response for a variety of infectious diseases.

Dr. Andrés Aranda-Díaz is a joint Postdoctoral Fellow on the Rapid Response team and the EPPIcenter at UCSF. His work centers around developing and implementing genomic tools for malaria genomic epidemiology, with a focus on capacity building. He has a background in disease surveillance implementation, microbial ecology, quantitative microbiology, and systems and synthetic biology of stress responses.