Hooked on ID with Brad Perkins, MD, MBA
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When I was in high school, I was given the opportunity to take a part-time job that was a little out of the ordinary for my age: I worked for a clinical microbiologist selling sterile sheep blood to microbiology laboratories to make bacterial culture agar.
This experience influenced my decision to major in microbiology. Dr. Herbert DuPont, a notable physician-researcher in all aspects of enteric infectious diseases at the University of Texas in Houston, was a major influence on me. Dr. Dupont trained at the CDC in the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS), and eventually recommended I join the EIS program and even offered to write a letter of recommendation for me. This led to a fulfilling 2 decades at the CDC, where I worked globally on infectious diseases, serving as the first chief strategy officer for 6 years before departing in 2009.
Work in infectious diseases is the foundation of prevention and public health, and the earliest model for precision medicine. We are advancing these traditions at Karius by pioneering the development and commercialization of plasma-based microbial cell-free DNA metagenomic sequencing for diagnosis and management of infectious diseases.
Brad Perkins, MD, MBA
Chief medical officer
Karius