Researcher | Research Overview
Dr. Pollock is an expert in the development and evaluation of novel diagnostics for infectious diseases, with experience ranging from early proof of principle laboratory demonstration through translation to field implementation. Her diagnostics research has spanned a range of diseases including active and latent tuberculosis, C. difficile infection, influenza, malaria, Lyme disease, STDs, Ebola virus disease (EVD), HCV, and COVID-19. Her research has also involved a wide range of technologies, from simple paper-based lateral flow and microfluidic platforms to novel automated platforms for protein and nucleic acid detection, and a wide range of testing scenarios, from the high-complexity molecular laboratory to point-of-care testing (including in resource-limited and outbreak settings).
Researcher | Research Background
Dr. Nira Pollock completed her MD/PhD at the University of California, San Francisco; her medical residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston; and her infectious diseases/clinical microbiology fellowships at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston. She is the Co-Director of the Infectious Diseases Diagnostic Laboratory (IDDL) in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, and has been at BCH since 2012. She is also a faculty member of the Division of Infectious Diseases at BIDMC. She is an Associate Professor of both Pathology and Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Since 2023, she has also worked part-time (under an IPA agreement) as a Senior Advisor to the Director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at NIH, providing guidance to RADx/ITAP programs for diagnostic development and assisting with interagency pandemic preparedness efforts.
Dr. Pollock is a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).