Tony L. Goldberg, PhD, DVM

Professor of Epidemiology; Associate Director for Research, UW-Madison Global Health Institute

Research in Dr. Tony Goldberg’s laboratory focuses on the ecology, epidemiology and evolution of viral disease.  His work combines field and laboratory studies to understand how viruses are transmitted among hosts, across complex landscapes, and over time.  His work combines data ranging from viral genome sequences to epidemiologic data on viral transmission.  Over the past five years, Dr. Goldberg has made significant advances in the study of non-human primate viruses.  Among other advances, Dr. Goldberg and collaborators have discovered diverse relatives of simian hemorrhagic fever virus in wild African primates, and Dr. Goldberg has documented reverse zoonotic transmission of human rhinovirus C to wild chimpanzees.  Dr. Goldberg’s VTG trainee, Andrew Bennett, has made significant discoveries in the ecology and epidemiology of emerging primate and bat viruses.  For example, Andrew has published the discovery of a novel homolog of human hepatitis B virus in baboons (Bennett et al., Emerg Infect Dis. 2016, PMID: 27315373), and he has manuscripts currently under review describing novel RNA viruses in African bats, including ecological mechanisms for zoonotic transmission. Dr. Goldberg collaborates with Drs. Friedrich (simian hemorrhagic fever viruses), D. O’Connor (simian hemorrhagic fever viruses), Palmenberg (rhinoviruses in chimpanzees), and Bernard (arboviruses in the Upper Midwest). Dr. Goldberg’s lab is supported by NIH (2 R01 subcontracts), the US Geological Society (PI), the US Fish and Wildlife Service (PI), the USDA (PI) and a Sea grant (PI).