Andrew Janowski, MD, MSCI

Dr. Janowski is a physician-scientist specialized in pediatric infectious diseases. His research focuses on the discovery and characterization of novel viruses. Currently, his work focuses on the role of astroviruses in causing human diseases. Most humans around the world have been infected by these viruses, with most infections occurring during childhood. Recently, astroviruses have been discovered to cause infections of the human brain, resulting in fatal cases of encephalitis. Dr. Janowski was the first person to be able to isolate and grow the most commonly detected astrovirus from these cases, astrovirus VA1. He showed that the virus can replicate in cells of the brain and has been developing cutting-edge models to understand how this virus causes neurological diseases. His lab has been using “mini brains” (brain organoids) to study how the virus infects different cell types of the human brain and to track what happens to the cells after infection. His work also recently discovered that astroviruses can infect the hearts of mice, suggesting that astroviruses could also play a role in cardiovascular diseases in humans. Dr. Janowski has also been studying the basic biology of astroviruses and how they reproduce. Viruses use specific structures in their viral genome to facilitate replication of new viruses. He found a specific RNA sequence in the viral genome to be essential for this process. Interestingly, this RNA element is also encoded by several other viruses. His lab is now studying the function of this element and why different viruses have evolved to also encode it. Finally, Dr. Janowski is translating this work back to patient care. It is currently unknown how often astroviruses cause infections of the central nervous system because no clinically approved tests exist. His lab is now developing new diagnostic tests and treatments for astrovirus infections.