Dr. Seema Lakdawala is a molecular virologist who began her training at the Salk Institute and
continued at the NIH, where in 2009 she started studying the airborne transmission of emerging
influenza viruses. Her early work led to key discoveries, including identifying the presence of
influenza viruses in aerosols of various sizes and defining the soft palate as a critical site for viral
adaptation and transmission.

In 2015, Dr. Lakdawala launched her independent research program at the University of
Pittsburgh School of Medicine and later moved her lab to Emory University in 2022. Her lab
investigates influenza virus transmission, pathogenesis, and assembly across multiple scales.
They use advanced microscopy and biochemistry to study viral replication, animal models to
explore transmission barriers, controlled human infection models to examine release of
infectious respiratory particles, and environmental engineering approaches to assess virus
persistence in air. She founded and co-directs the Emory Center for Transmission of Airborne
Pathogens (C-TAP).

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lakdawala Lab helped assess the impact of public health
interventions at community levels, developing an interactive dashboard—PHIGHTCOVID.org—
to guide national policy decisions. Recently, the lab has focused on the H5N1 outbreak, studying
the presence of infectious virus in air and wastewater on farms, how prior immunity to seasonal
H1N1 affects disease severity, and the persistence of H5N1 in milk on shared surfaces.
Dr. Lakdawala frequently speaks to the media on respiratory virus transmission and has
coauthored several high-impact reviews, including in Science and Annual Review of Virology.
She is the recipient of the 2020 ASV Ann Palmenberg Junior Investigator Award, a co-organizer
of the 2020 National Academies workshop on SARS-CoV-2 airborne transmission, and a 2024
Kavli Fellow. Learn more at www.LakdawalaLab.com.