Prof. Christine Carrington

Head of Department- Preclinical Sciences

The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Telephone: 868-645 3232 ext 4643

Email: christine.carrington@sta.uwi.edu

Christine Carrington is Professor of Molecular Genetics and Virology and Head of the Department of Preclinical Sciences of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at The University of the West Indies (St. Augustine Campus) in Trinidad and Tobago. She holds a BSc in Biotechnology and PhD in Molecular Virology, both from the University of London. Her research focuses on understanding evolutionary and ecological factors involved in the emergence, spread and maintenance of viruses, especially vector-borne RNA viruses. Her work to date includes studies on dengue viruses, Zika virus, Chikungunya virus, yellow fever virus, rabies virus and coronaviruses.

Christine is the Coordinator of the WHO/PAHO reference sequencing laboratory at the UWI and of the Global Virus Network Affiliated Centre of Excellence at the Faculty of Medical Sciences. She is a founding member of the Faculty of Medical Sciences’ Tropical Medicine Cluster: Infectious Diseases, Trinidad and Tobago’s representative on the Board of Governors of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, a member of the UWI COVID-19 Task Force and the Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation to the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Health. She led COVID-19 IMPACT project that established local capacity for SARS-CoV-2 whole genome sequencing and carried out genomic surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern for 17 Caribbean countries until regional public health bodies implemented in house capacity, a year later. She is the Anthony N. Sabga Awards - Caribbean Excellence, 2022 Laureate in Science & Technology and recipient of a Trinidad and Tobago National Award (Chaconia Medal Gold) for her service and contributions as a virologist.

For more information you can find her ResearchGate profile here and her Google Scholar profile here

Qualification

BSc (Hons) Biotechnology (Lond.)
PhD Molecular Virology (Lond.)
Associate of King’s College (AKC)

Research Interests

Emerging infectious diseases, especially RNA viruses and vector-borne viruses such as zika, chikungunya, dengue, yellow fever, rabies viruses and coronaviruses
Viral Evolution, Phylogenetics and Phylogeography
Viral Diversity, Viral Discovery , Virome studies and Biosurveillance, especially in relation to emergence of viruses

Featured Work

Seetahal et al,Population genetics, phylogeography and gene flow of mainland and island vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) populations: an investigation into mainland-island bat movement. BioRxiv doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.01.29.577751
de Souza et al. Chikungunya: a decade of burden in the Americas. Lancet Regional Health - Americas. 2024 Jan 8;30:100673. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2023.100673
Hill et al. Towards a global virus genomic surveillance network. Cell Host & Microbe. 2023 Jun 14;31(6):861-873. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2023.03.003 . Epub 2023 Mar 6.
Sahadeo et al. Implementation of Genomic Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in the Caribbean: Lessons learned for sustainability in resource-limited settings. PLOS Global Public Health 2023 Feb 22; 3(2): e0001455. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0001455
Alicok et al. Determinants of dengue virus dispersal in the Americas. Virus Evolution, veaa074, https://doi.org/10.1093/ve/veaa074. eCollection 2020 Jul
Carrington et al. Invasion and maintenance of dengue virus type 2 and type 4 in the Americas. J Virol. 2005 Dec;79(23):14680-7. https://doi.org/10.1128/jvi.79.23.14680-14687.2005

Skills

Molecular Virology
Molecular Genetics
Virus Evolution
Phylogenetics
Phylogeography
Emerging viruses (esp. mosquito-borne and other vector-borne RNA viruses).

Honours and Awards

UWI Principal’s Award for Best Researcher (2023)
UWI Principal’s Award for Most Outstanding Regional/International Research Project (2023)
Anthony N. Sabga Awards - Caribbean Excellence, 2022 Laureate in Science & Technology
2022 Trinidad and Tobago National Award (Chaconia Medal Gold) for leadership in molecular genetics and virology.
UWI Research Award for Outstanding Research Mentorship (2012)
Selected as one of the UWI’s 60 leading academics (“60 under 60”) (2008)
Commonwealth Research Fellowship (2004)
Leukaemia Research Fund Fellowship (1994)
Leukaemia Research Fund Studentship (1990)
Wellcome Trust Summer Scholarship (1989)

UWI Service

Head of Department (2018 – 2024)
Public Orator (2017 - present)
Chair, Campus Open Lectures Committee (2016 - present)

Public Service

Member, Strategic Advisory Board of the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Imperial College, UK (Aug 2023 – present)
Public Education sessions on SARS-CoV-2 for various local and regional public and private organisations and schools (2021)
Coordinator, PAHO-WHO Reference Sequencing Laboratory, UWI, Trinidad and Tobago (June 2021 – present)
Member, Pango Committee of the Pango Network (an international team of experts to oversee the identification and naming of different lineages of SARS-CoV-2 virus) (2021 – present)
Director, Trinidad & Tobago Global Virus Network Affiliated Centre, UWI St. Augustine Campus (2020 - present)
Member, The University of the West Indies COVID-19 Task Force (Feb 2020 – 2023)
Associate Editor: Virus Evolution (Oxford University Press).
Trinidad and Tobago Representative, Board of Governors, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (2017 – 2024).
Member, Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Health Technical Advisory Committee on Immunisation (2020 – present)
Member of Ministry of Health Committee to prepare National Clinical Guidelines for Zika virus and pregnancy (2016).

Professional Memberships

American Society for Virology
American Society for Microbiology
American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene