J. Kenneth Wickiser serves as the Phyllis Mailman Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. Starting his professional life as an Army Aviation officer serving in the Signals Intelligence mission space, he transitioned to the biosciences and earned his Doctorate in Philosophy from Yale University in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry having helped develop early microbial genetic searching tools to discover and characterize classes of ancient RNA-based genetic control mechanisms they termed, riboswitches. He then completed his postdoctoral research work in the Laboratory of Molecular Neuro-oncology at the Rockefeller University in New York City before serving as a civilian faculty member at West Point, eventually achieving the rank of Professor of Biochemistry (with tenure) and Associate Dean for Research. At West Point, Dr. Wickiser founded the Synthetic Biology research program and the clinical research program identifying molecular and biometric biomarkers of injury and disease in healthy military populations.
In 2021, Wickiser left federal service to help found the Global Alliance for Preventing Pandemics (GAPP), a center at Columbia University dedicated to technical workforce development, standardization of best practices, and dedication to transparent data sharing among international partner organizations. GAPP is focused on training people and sharing information and tools so that everyone has the ability to quickly, effectively, and independently detect and contain local pathogen outbreaks using a tiered and fit-for-purpose diagnostic algorithm and the associated reagents and tools ranging from RDTs, PCR, and ELISAs to advanced NGS methods like our clinically approved VCS pan-pathogen-focused metagenomics system. The GAPP team develops broad solutions to assist teams engage in simultaneous surveillance, clinical research, and biosecurity/biosafety efforts. Over the past four years, the GAPP team has trained lab scientists, clinicians, and public health administrators from Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Germany, Netherlands, UK, the CDC, US Army, US Navy, and the US Air Force; the team anticipates expanding operations significantly in the Indo-Pacific region and the Americas over the next two years.
Wickiser serves on the Executive Committee of the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD) Other Transaction Authority (OTA), representing all academic organizations contributing to that essential mission. He also serves on the Department of Veterans Affairs Research Advisory Committee for Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses (RACGWVI) where he helps advise the branch on research investments designed to serve this population of Americans who served in specific operations.
