She worked on two viruses in graduate school: the bacteriophage ΦX174 and vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). For her dissertation with John Holland, she investigated the virus evolution during persistent infection by VSV. Kathy moved to UCLA for her postdoctoral work on adenoviruses with Arnie Berk, where she used molecular biology tools to characterize viral gene expression and viral replication.

Kathy’s research encompasses virology, pathogenesis, molecular biology, genetics, immunology and even some biochemistry. In addition to being a member of the U-M M&I Department, she is a member of the Cellular and Molecular Biology Training Program and the Molecular Mechanisms of Microbial Pathogenesis Training Program. She is Secretary-Treasurer of the American Society for Virology and is a member of the TWiV podcast team (This Week in Virology).