Alpana Waghmare, MD

Dr. Waghmare’s research is focused on respiratory viral infections in immunocompetent and immunocompromised adults and children. She is interested in the factors that influence disease severity and progression, with the intent to identify diagnostic, prevention, and treatment strategies. Dr. Waghmare’s focus to date has been on the impact of human rhinovirus, the most common virus detected from respiratory specimens in hematopoietic cell transplant recipients. She is working to identify clinical, viral, and host factors that may serve as biomarkers for disease severity. Viral factors she is evaluating include viral load in blood and respiratory secretions, strain type, and shedding duration. Host factors are being evaluated through host cytokine responses and whole blood gene expression profiles. These determinants of disease will serve as biomarkers for risk stratification and can be used diagnostically to predict poor outcome, thus defining patients who warrant aggressive treatment strategies. Additionally, these studies will provide important insight into biologic pathways during infection and define possible targets for intervention. Dr. Waghmare’s group is investigating similar markers of disease progression for other respiratory viruses, including parainfluenza viruses and respiratory syncytial virus. Since the onset of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, Dr. Waghmare has been evaluating the natural history of infection in a longitudinal surveillance cohort study of individuals at high risk of infection. The goals of the study include understanding the incidence rate, viral shedding duration and re-infection rates as well as defining the kinetics of antibody and T-cell responses in infected individuals.

Dr. Waghmare is also involved in clinical trials for novel antivirals and immune based therapies for the treatment of respiratory viral infections in children and adults.