Joel A. Lefferts PhD, HCLD, DABCC

Joel Lefferts, Ph.D. is currently a post-doctoral fellow in the Pathology Translational Research Program at the Dartmouth Medical School and Molecular Pathology Laboratory at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH. He received his Ph.D. in Molecular Pathology and Immunology from the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey where his research included the study of protein interactions in the DNA repair pathways disrupted in hereditary cancer susceptibility syndromes. During his molecular pathology fellowship, he has had the opportunity to publish several book chapters, reviews, and research articles in the field of molecular diagnostics development. validating and implementing clinical molecular assays with applications in diverse clinical disciplines including oncology, and hematology. pharmacogenetics and virology. His development work in the Translational Research program has led to the transition of numerous assays to the clinical Molecular Pathology Laboratory, including real- ime PCR-based assays for parvovirus B19 and the BK polyomavirus. His current work includes defining the laboratory's quantitative BK polyomavirus testing while also researching the orevalence of the Merkel cell polyomavirus in cancers other than Merkel cell carcinoma.