Director, Clinical Virology and Molecular Microbiology
Primary Appointment in Pathology; Joint Appointment in Molecular Medicine and Immunology (SHPH)
The Johns Hopkins Hospital
Department of Pathology
Division of Microbiology
Meyer B1-193
600 North Wolfe Street
Baltimore, MD 21287-7093
Phone: (410) 955-5077
Fax: (410) 614-8087
Email: avalsam1@jhmi.edu
Education and Training:
- B.A., Biology, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA
- M.D., University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
- Ph.D., Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
Professional Interests:
My research is focused on the detection, identification, and therapeutic monitoring of infectious diseases, particularly viral infections. My current work entails 1) improving molecular assays that are critical for the management of hepatitis C and hepatitis B infections, 2) devising quantitative assays for viral infections and studying their clinical utility particularly in immunocompromised patients, and 3) investigation of the performance and utility of automated nucleic acid preparation instrumentation in the clinical laboratory. We utilize a variety of conventional (cell culture, antigen detection) and molecular techniques (nucleic acid amplification, primarily PCR and real time PCR).
Major Professional Leadership:
Professional Organizations:
- American Society for Microbiology (President, Maryland Branch, 2002-2004)
- Association for Molecular Pathology (Chair-Elect, Infectious Diseases Subdivision)
- Infectious Disease Society of America
- Pan-American Society for Clinical Virology
Editorial Boards:
- Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
- Manual of Clinical Microbiology;
Ad Hoc Reviewer:
- Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology
- Journal of Clinical Microbiology
- Journal of Molecular Diagnostics
- Journal of Viral Hepatitis
Study Sections:
- IDM-B-12 (SBIR)
Recent Publications:
M.S. Forman and A. Valsamakis. Verification of an assay for quantification of HCV RNA using an analyte specific reagent and two different extraction methods. J. Clin. Micro. 42:3581-8, 2004.
M.S. Forman and A. Valsamakis. Increased sensitivity of the Roche COBAS AMPLICOR HCV test v.2.0, using modified extraction techniques. J. Molec. Diag. 6:225-30, 2004.
Knepp, J.H., M.A. Geahr, M.S. Forman, and A. Valsamakis. Comparison of Automated and Manual Nucleic Acid Extraction Methods for the Detection of Enterovirus RNA. J. Clin. Microbiol. 41: 3532-3536, 2003.
Dumler, J.S. and Valsamakis, A. Molecular diagnostics of infectious diseases: complementary tools for a new era of clinical microbiology. Am. J. Clin. Path. 112: S33-S39, 1999.
