Eric D Laing

Ph.D.

Department of Primary Appointment:
School of Medicine
Microbiology and Immunology
Location: Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD
Research Interests:
Biosurveillance, zoonotic RNA viruses
Virus-host interactions, medical countermeasure development

Education

2016, Ph.D. Emerging Infectious Diseases, Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, MD
2008, B.S., High Hons, Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD

Biography

Dr. Eric Laing, PhD, joined the Department of Microbiology and Immunology as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in October 2021, and holds a joint appointment with the Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) Graduate Program in the School of Medicine. While pursuing a doctoral degree at USU in the EID Graduate Program, Dr. Laing studied how the autophagy response, an intrinsic cellular homeostatic process, functioned as an antiviral response to Australian bat lyssavirus in bats. Additionally, he completed a NSF East Asia Pacific Summer Institutes fellowship at Duke-NUS, developing an antigen-based multiplex approach for filovirus sero-surveillance. Prior to joining the department as tenure-track faculty, Dr. Laing completed a postdoctoral fellowship studying reverse genetics systems for henipaviruses and characterizing receptor-use of Cedar virus. In 2020, Dr. Laing supported SARS-CoV-2 research, applying experience in developing antigen-based serology tests for measuring sero-prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in congregate settings, SARS-CoV-2 infection-induced antibody longevity, and correlates of immunity after COVID-19 vaccination. Dr. Laing served as an Associate Investigator for the Prospective Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 Seroconversion study at WRNMMC and the USU Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Program EPICC study; the latter was recognized as an Outstanding Research Accomplishment/Team/SARS-CoV-2 at the 2021 Military Health System Research Symposium.

Representative Bibliography

Andronescu LR, Richard SA, Laing ED, Pisanic N, Coggins SA, Rivera MG, Kruczynski K, Saperstein AK, Modi J, Fraser JA, Shaikh S, Broder CC, Burgess TH, Heaney CD, Pollett SD, Millar E, Coles CL, Simons MP. Evaluating SARS-CoV-2 Saliva and Dried Blood Spot Surveillance Strategies in a Congregate Population. Emerg Infect Dis. 2023 Aug 14;29(9). doi: 10.3201/eid2909.230417. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37579513.

Epsi NJ, Richard SA, Lindholm DA, Mende K, Ganesan A, Huprikar N, Lalani T, Fries AC, Maves RC, Colombo RE, Larson DT, Smith A, Chi SW, Maldonado CJ, Ewers EC, Jones MU, Berjohn CM, Libraty DH, Edwards MS, English C, Rozman JS, Mody RM, Colombo CJ, Samuels EC, Nwachukwu P, Tso MS, Scher AI, Byrne C, Rusiecki J, Simons MP, Tribble D, Broder CC, Agan BK, Burgess TH, Laing ED, Pollett SD; Epidemiology, Immunology, and Clinical Characteristics of Emerging Infectious Diseases with Pandemic Potential COVID-19 Cohort Study Group. Understanding Hybrid Immunity: Comparison and Predictors of Humoral Immune Responses to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection (SARS- CoV-2) and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Vaccines. Clin Infect Dis. 2023 Feb 8;76(3):e439-e449. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciac392. PMID: 35608504; PMCID: PMC9213853.

Laing ED, Weiss CD, Samuels EC, Coggins SA, Wang W, Wang R, Vassell R, Sterling SL, Tso MS, Conner T, Goguet E, Moser M, Jackson-Thompson BM, Illinik L, Davies J, Ortega O, Parmelee E, Hollis-Perry M, Maiolatesi SE, Wang G, Ramsey KF, Reyes AE, Alcorta Y, Wong MA, Lindrose AR, Duplessis CA, Tribble DR, Malloy AMW, Burgess TH, Pollett SD, Olsen CH, Broder CC, Mitre E. Durability of Antibody Response and Frequency of SARS-CoV-2 Infection 6 Months after COVID-19 Vaccination in Healthcare Workers. Emerg Infect Dis. 2022 Apr;28(4):828-832. doi: 10.3201/eid2804.212037. Epub 2022 Feb 24. PMID: 35203111; PMCID: PMC8962883.

Lusvarghi S, Pollett SD, Neerukonda SN, Wang W, Wang R, Vassell R, Epsi NJ, Fries AC, Agan BK, Lindholm DA, Colombo CJ, Mody R, Ewers EC, Lalani T, Ganesan A, Goguet E, Hollis-Perry M, Coggins SA, Simons MP, Katzelnick LC, Wang G, Tribble DR, Bentley L, Eakin AE, Broder CC, Erlandson KJ, Laing ED, Burgess TH, Mitre E, Weiss CD. SARS-CoV-2 BA.1 variant is neutralized by vaccine booster-elicited serum, but evades most convalescent serum and therapeutic antibodies. Sci Transl Med. 2022 Apr 5:eabn8543. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abn8543. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35380448; PMCID: PMC8995032.

Coggins SA, Laing ED, Olsen CH, Goguet E, Moser M, Jackson-Thompson BM, Samuels EC, Pollett SD, Tribble DR, Davies J, Illinik L, Hollis-Perry M, Maiolatesi SE, Duplessis CA, Ramsey KF, Reyes AE, Alcorta Y, Wong MA, Wang G, Ortega O, Parmelee E, Lindrose AR, Snow AL, Malloy AMW, Letizia AG, Ewing D, Powers JH, Schully KL, Burgess TH, Broder CC, Mitre E. Adverse Effects and Antibody Titers in Response to the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine in a Prospective Study of Healthcare Workers. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2021 Nov 20;9(1):ofab575. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofab575. PMID: 35047649; PMCID: PMC8759445.

Clifton GT, Pati R, Krammer F, Laing ED, Broder CC, Mendu DR, Simons MP, Chen HW, Sugiharto VA, Kang AD, Stadlbauer D, Pratt KP, Bandera BC, Fritz DK, Millar EV, Burgess TH, Chung KK. SARS-CoV-2 Infection Risk Among Active Duty Military Members Deployed to a Field Hospital - New York City, April 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2021 Mar 5;70(9):308-311. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm7009a3. PMID: 33661864; PMCID: PMC7948931.

Lalani T, Lee TK, Laing ED, Ritter A, Cooper E, Lee M, Baker M, Baldino T, Mcadoo T, Phogat S, Samuels E, Nguyen H, Broder CC, Epsi N, Richard SA, Warkentien TE, Millar EV, Burgess T, Kronmann KC. SARS-CoV-2 Infections and Serologic Responses Among Military Personnel Deployed on the USNS COMFORT to New York City During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2021 Jan 23;8(2):ofaa654. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofaa654. PMID: 33553482; PMCID: PMC7856331.

Dovih P, Laing ED, Chen Y, Low DHW, Ansil BR, Yang X, Shi Z, Broder CC, Smith GJD, Linster M, Ramakrishnan U, Mendenhall IH. Filovirus-reactive antibodies in humans and bats in Northeast India imply zoonotic spillover. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2019 Oct 31;13(10):e0007733. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0007733. Erratum in: PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2021 Nov 16;15(11):e0009836. PMID: 31671094; PMCID: PMC6822707.

Laing ED, Navaratnarajah CK, Cheliout Da Silva S, Petzing SR, Xu Y, Sterling SL, Marsh GA, Wang LF, Amaya M, Nikolov DB, Cattaneo R, Broder CC, Xu K. Structural and functional analyses reveal promiscuous and species specific use of ephrin receptors by Cedar virus. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019 Oct 8;116(41):20707-20715. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1911773116. Epub 2019 Sep 23. PMID: 31548390; PMCID: PMC6789926.

Laing ED, Amaya M, Navaratnarajah CK, Feng YR, Cattaneo R, Wang LF, Broder CC. Rescue and characterization of recombinant cedar virus, a non-pathogenic Henipavirus species. Virol J. 2018 Mar 27;15(1):56. doi: 10.1186/s12985-018-0964-0. PMID: 29587789; PMCID: PMC5869790.