Meet Dr. Jay Reddy: Chief Scientific Officer

As of July 2024, Dr. Jay Reddy has been promoted to Chief Scientific Officer. This promotion recognizes Dr. Reddy’s exceptional leadership in providing scientific guidance to our organization and highlights the emerging opportunities for him to lead the development of our scientific roadmap and research agenda, which encompass both short—and long-term objectives.

Dr. Jay Reddy is a healthcare/laboratory executive with close to a decade of experience in molecular diagnostics. As a leading collaborator in the Public Health Emergency (PHE) response for both COVID-19 and Monkeypox, he helped develop high-throughput testing capacity to alleviate the national testing burden through active collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and public health laboratories. Because the FDA-approved tests for both diseases were low throughput and could not meet testing demands, professional laboratories, including HealthTrackRx, were essential in providing services and addressing needs that manufactured medical devices could not address. During both PHEs, HealthTrackRx not only performed testing but published infection trending articles, one of which was a direct collaboration with the CDC.

Dr. Reddy also developed the clinical education program at HealthTrackRx that educates healthcare providers on employing guideline driven diagnostic usage to support greater antibiotic stewardship in the outpatient care setting. Increasing antimicrobial resistance concurrent with the lack in new antibiotic development is a significant public health issue. Dr. Reddy is passionate about educating physicians on how the use of molecular diagnostics, matched to patient symptoms can promote antibiotic stewardship, enable more targeted prescribing and better patient experience and outcomes.

Minhaj F, Singh V, Cohen S, Townsend M, Scott H, Szumowski J, Hare C, Upadhyay P, Reddy J, Alexander B, Baird N, Navarra T, Priyamvada L, Wynn N, Carson W, Odafe S, Guagliarado S, Sims E, Rao A, Satheshkumar P, Weidle P, & Hutson C. Prevalence of Undiagnosed Monkeypox Virus Infections during Global Mpox Outbreak, United States, June–September 2022. Emerging Infectious Diseases. 2023; 29(11): 2307-2314. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2911.230940

Upadhyay P, Reddy J, Proctor T, Sorel O, Veereshlingam H, Gandhi M, Wang X, & Singh V. Expanded PCR Panel Testing for Identification of Respiratory Pathogens and Coinfections in Influenza-like Illness. Diagnostics. 2023; 13 (12): 2014. https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics13122014

Singh V., Upadhyay P., Reddy J., & Granger J. SARS-CoV-2 respiratory co-infections: Incidence of viral and bacterial co-pathogens. International Journal of Infectious Diseases. 2021; 105: 617-620. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2021.02.087

De Silva I, Nayek S, Singh V, Reddy J, Granger J, & Verbeck G. Paper spray mass spectrometry utilizing Teslin® substrate for rapid detection of lipid metabolite changes during COVID-19 infection. Analyst. 2020; 145: 5725-5732.  https://doi.org/10.1039/D0AN01074J

Singh V, Wilks C, Reddy J, & Granger J. Outpatient Urinary-Tract-Infection-Like Symptoms: Causative Microbial Survey Utilizing Multiplex Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction Methodology. Advances in Infectious Diseases. 2020; 10: 26-36. https://doi.org/10.4236/aid.2020.101003

Reddy J, Raut N, Seifert J, & Hynds DL. Regulation of Small GTPase Prenylation in the Nervous System. Molecular Neurobiology. 2020; 57: 2220-2231. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12035-020-01870-0

Singh V, Reddy J, & Granger J. A Survey of Viral-bacterial Co-infection in Respiratory Samples Using Multiplex Real Time-PCR. Journal of Infectious Diseases and Therapy. 2019; 7(2).  DOI: 10.4172/2332-0877.1000400

Reddy J, McConnell, J, Samuel, F, Reddy, C, Beck B, & Hynds DL. Non-prenylatable, cytosolic Rac1 alters neurite outgrowth while retaining guanosine triphosphate (GTP) loading. Cellular Signalling. 2015; 27(3): 630-637.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cellsig.2014.11.033

Samuel F, Reddy J, Kaimal R, Segovia V, Mo H, & Hynds DL. Inhibiting Geranylgeranylation Increases Neurite Branching and Differentially Activates Cofilin in Cell Bodies and Growth Cones. Molecular Neurobiology. 2014; 50: 49-59. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12035-014-8653-5

Reddy J, Foster K, Ashbury T, Brooks J, & Smith V. Public perceptions, knowledge, and stigma toward people with schizophrenia. Journal of Public Mental Health. 2011; 10 (1), 45-56. https://doi.org/10.1108/17465721111134547