College of Veterinary Medicine > Viveka Vadyvaloo

Viveka Vadyvaloo

  1. Associate Director, Paul G. Allen School for Global Health
  2. Associate Professor
Email Address vvadyvaloo@wsu.edu
Location  

Biography

Dr. Vadyvaloo obtained a PhD in Biochemistry in 2003 from Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Thereafter she undertook a first postdoctoral training stint in the laboratory of the late Dr. Ron Kaback at University of California in Los Angeles where she worked on characterizing the function of membrane transport proteins using biochemical approaches. Next, she trained at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories/NIAID in Montana, working on Staphylococcus pathogenesis initially, and thereafter on the bubonic plague under the mentorship of Joe Hinnebusch. She began a position as tenure-track faculty in the Allen School in 2010 where she continues to pursue studies into characterizing the underlying biological processes that enable the bacterial agent of the plague, Yersinia pestis, to be transmitted via flea bites to spread plague.

Affiliate and Adjunct Appointments

  • Adjunct, Veterinary Microbiology & Pathology

Education

  • PhD, Stellenbosch University, 2003

Research Interest

  • Posttranscriptional regulation of Y. pestis adaptation to flea colonization
  • Bacterial biofilms
  • Fleas
  • Molecular mechanisms of flea blood digestion and immunity
  • Development of tools for genetic manipulation of fleas

Publications

Professional Service

  • WSU College of Veterinary Medicine Research Council

Honors and Awards

  • Provost Featured Faculty Member, 2019