Dr. Rachel R Spurbeck PhD

Dr. Rachel R. Spurbeck, PhD is a senior genomics research scientist within the Health Outcomes and Biotechnology Solutions division at Battelle Memorial Institute, where she serves as subject matter expert and principal investigator for molecular biology assay development, metagenomics, forensic genomics, and emerging genomic technology studies. She received her bachelor's of science in biology from Central Michigan University and her PhD in Genetics from Michigan State University. She has over 15 years of professional laboratory experience and is trained in genetics, bacterial pathogenesis, and biotechnology research and development. She previously worked in the biotechnology industry, developing novel Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) library preparation kits and applications for whole genome sequencing, targeted sequencing methods including both amplicon and hybridization sequencing, transcriptomics, metagenomics, and epigenomics. She has published 19 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she helped set up Battelle's clinical laboratory by validating diagnostic assays and on an NSF RAPID grant, developed methods to track the pandemic via wastewater sequencing at a local level. She has continued her wastewater sequencing work with the Ohio Department of Health's Ohio Wastewater Coronavirus Tracking Network, developing methods to track variants of concern in wastewater by genome sequencing. Her team has developed a wastewater pathogen tracking dashboard, which can be used to not only track COVID-19, but all pathogens detectable from untargeted sequencing, and implemented this dashboard in a pilot project in Toledo, Ohio.