Dr. Smith’s research interests are infectious diseases of laboratory and wild rodents and appropriate housing modalities for laboratory-maintained rodents. She has worked extensively in developing diagnostic tests for viruses of rodents and has studied the immunomodulatory properties of several naturally occurring viral infections of laboratory rodents. She has shown that two of the most common viruses of laboratory mice, mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) and mouse parvovirus, can alter host immune responses. Both agents affect T cell function and MHV also compromises accessory (antigen-presenting) cell function. Dr. Smith has also surveyed wild rodent populations in Australia, Madagascar, rural Connecticut, the New Haven (CT) landfill, the Chicago Forest Preserve and University City in Philadelphia for the occurrence of viral and bacterial agents as well as parasites. Each population was unique in terms of microbial flora. In some cases human pathogens were detected and, in the case of the Philadelphia mice, almost all were Helicobacter-positive by polymerase chain reaction. This is the first report of Helicobacter, which is common in laboratory mice, in wild rodents.