Keith R. Jerome

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Keith R. Jerome is an American virologist whose research focuses on viruses such as herpes simplex, HIV and hepatitis B that persist in their hosts. He published on the first known case of COVID-19 in the United States detecting SARS-CoV-2 in Washington State^[1] and helped forge the nation's COVID-19 testing.^[2][3][4] In 2021, Jerome and Alexander Greninger shared the Washington Innovator of the Year award for developing the laboratory based assay for detecting COVID-19.^[5] He was senior author on a research article published in Science describing the cryptic transmission of SARS-CoV-2 alongside Trevor Bedford, Alexander Greninger, Jay Shendure, and Helen Chu.^[6] Regarding the origin of SARS-CoV-2 he reported that the live market in Wuhan was more likely than a lab leak of the virus.^[7]

Jerome studies the ways in which these viruses evade the immune system and potential therapies for these infections. Jerome and his colleagues study the uses of precision gene-editing tools like CRISPR/Cas9 to remove damaging viral genes that have tucked themselves into a person's genetic code or to insert genes that can protect cells from invading viruses. He has been working for years on research aimed at a cure for Herpes virus by using the DNA-cutting tools of gene therapy. Initial research showed these techniques could knock out small quantities of latent virus.^[8] He and his colleagues are exploring this approach in combination with blood stem cell transplants as a means of curing HIV.

Academic and medical appointments

• Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Washington, 2012–present
• Head, Virology Division, Laboratory Medicine, University of Washington, 2012–present
• Full professor, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 2015–present

Education and training

• Georgetown College, B.S., Chemistry, summa cum laude, 1985
• Duke University, PhD, Microbiology and Immunology, 1992
• Duke University, MD, May 1993
• Resident Physician, Department of Pathology, University of Washington, 1993-1995
• Resident Physician, Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of Washington, 1995-1997
• Senior Fellow, Virology Division, Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of Washington, 1997-1998

Selected publications

• Jerome, Keith R.; Barnd, Donna L.; Bendt, Katharine M.; et al. (1991-06-01). "Cytotoxic T-Lymphocytes Derived from Patients with Breast Adenocarcinoma Recognize an Epitope Present on the Protein Core of a Mucin Molecule Preferentially Expressed by Malignant Cells". Cancer Research. 51 (11): 2908–2916.
• Jerome, Keith R.; Fox, Richard; Chen, Zheng; et al. (1999-11-01). "Herpes Simplex Virus Inhibits Apoptosis through the Action of Two Genes, Us5 and Us3". Journal of Virology. doi:10.1128/jvi.73.11.8950-8957.1999. PMC 112926.
• Bhatraju, Pavan K.; Ghassemieh, Bijan J.; Nichols, Michelle; et al. (2020-05-21). "Covid-19 in Critically Ill Patients in the Seattle Region - Case Series". The New England Journal of Medicine (382): 2012–2022. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2004500. PMC 7143164.
• Nalla, Arun K.; Casto, Amanda M.; Huang, Meei-Li W.; et al. (2020-05-26). "Comparative Performance of SARS-CoV-2 Detection Assays Using Seven Different Primer-Probe Sets and One Assay Kit". Journal of Clinical Microbiology. 58 (6). doi:10.1128/jcm.00557-20. PMC 7269385.
• Joung, Julia; Ladha, Alim; Saito, Makoto; et al. (2020-09-16). "Detection of SARS-CoV-2 with SHERLOCK One-Pot Testing". New England Journal of Medicine. 383: 1492–1494. doi:10.1056/NEJMc2026172. PMC 7510942.
• Bedford, Trevor; Greninger, Alexander L.; Roychoudhury, Pavitra; et al. (2020-09-10). "Cryptic transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Washington state". Science. 370 (6516): 571–575. doi:10.1126/science.abc0523. PMC 7276023.
• Perchetti, Garrett A.; Huang, Meei-Li; Mills, Margaret G.; Jerome, Keith R.; Greninger, Alexander L. (2021-02-18). "Analytical Sensitivity of the Abbott BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card". Clinical Microbiology. 59 (3). doi:10.1128/jcm.02880-20. PMC 8106729.

References