Jyotsna S. Shah MSc, PhD

Dr. Jyotsna Shah is the vice president and Laboratory Director of IGeneX Laboratory, Palo Alto, CA. Dr. Shah has over 35 years of research experience in immunology, molecular biology and microbiology. She received her BSc and MSc in Biological Sciences from the UK and her PhD in diagnostic immunology from Nairobi University. She then joined the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (ILRAD) as a post-doctoral scientist where she started the first DNA sequencing laboratory in E. Africa. On completion of her fellowship, she joined Harvard University, Department of Tropical Medicine as a research fellow and continued work on the development of molecular tools for the diagnosis of parasitic diseases.

Since then she has worked at several Biotechnology companies, mostly involved in the development of novel molecular technologies for the diagnosis of infectious diseases. Dr. Shah is a world expert on the use of the Fluorescent in Situ Hybridization (FISH) technique for direct detection of pathogens in clinical samples. For the last 18 years, she has been at IGeneX, where she introduced the first FISH test for Babesia and set up the PCR division for tick-borne diseases. Under her scientific guidance, IGeneX has become one of the leading reference laboratories for the diagnosis of tick-borne diseases in the world.