Dec. 16, 2025
Understanding How Zoonotic Viruses Cross Species
Suresh Kuchipudi’s research sheds new light on how the avian flu virus undergoes genetic changes and adapts in mammals—a warning sign of increased risk to people.
TOPICS: People
Designs on Aging-Ready
By Strategic Communications
University of Pittsburgh researcher Suresh Kuchipudi, professor and chair of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, School of Public Health, focuses on avian flu and other emerging animal-borne viruses and how they affect humans and animals. He uses a multidisciplinary approach to study the complex interactions between pathogens and their hosts.
Bird flu has been found to have spread from wild birds and poultry to many domestic and wild mammals, including cats and dairy cows, with occasional human infections. This heightens public health risk, making it especially urgent to understand the drivers of interspecies transmission and adaptation to mammals and humans. Kuchipudi’s research sheds new light on how the virus undergoes genetic changes as it navigates through multiple hosts and adapts in mammals—a warning sign of increased risk to people.
“We build predictive models and early-warning systems to anticipate outbreaks and guide targeted responses for future public health emergencies.”
Suresh Kuchipudi, professor and chair, Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology
His research helps us act early—protecting animal health, securing food systems and preventing public health crises before they begin.
“We build predictive models and early-warning systems to anticipate outbreaks and guide targeted responses for future public health emergencies,” he says. “On the translational side, we deliver practical solutions: rapid diagnostics, vaccines, and AI-guided discovery of new antivirals.”
The overall goal of his research is to unravel the factors that govern zoonotic virus transmission and adaptation. His team is actively involved in pioneering an oncolytic viral therapy for treating human and animal cancers.
Before joining the School of Public Health, he was the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Penn State Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and acted as the interim director of the Penn State Animal Diagnostic Laboratory. Additionally, he worked as an assistant professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham and as an assistant professor at Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University in Tirupathi, India.
Kuchipudi serves as an editorial board member for several journals and has earned several competitive research grants. He received the Research Innovator of the Year Award from Penn State University in 2022.