Charlotte Gaydos

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITION:
Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

RESEARCH AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
Dr Gaydos has extensive laboratory expertise with over 40 years experience in microbiology and received her doctoral degree on studies of C. pneumoniae. She has worked for the last 19 years in the chlamydia research field doing original research developing DNA amplification tests for Chlamydia trachomatis, C. pneumoniae, C. psittaci, Trichomonas vaginalis, Neissseria gonorrhoeae, Mycoplasma genitalium, and agents of genital ulcer disease. She sequenced the 16S rRNA gene for C. pneumoniae and developed a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay specific for C. pneumoniae. She has studied populations for the epidemiological association of C. pneumoniae with respiratory diseases, community acquired pneumonia, and heart disease, as well as performed primate animal studies with C. pneumoniae. All of these studies used analyses by culture, in situ hybridization, and PCR, as well as serology (microimmunofluorescence).

Dr Gaydos has set up and evaluated a method for assessing clinical cervical specimen cellular adequacy, as well as the persistence of C. trachomatis DNA after antibiotic therapy.

Additionally, Dr Gaydos is currently working on an Internet project for enhanced community chlamydia screening using self-administered vaginal swabs, which demonstrates an effective method for reaching women who may not attend clinics.

The laboratory Dr Gaydos works in has served as the Core Diagnostic Laboratory and as the Reference laboratory for many national and international grants for collaborative studies of sexually transmitted diseases. The laboratory is CLIA-licensed and State of Maryland certified for diagnostic assays for chlamydia.

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