Dr. Wootton obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Guelph in 2002 before completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington where she studied lung gene therapy and oncogenic retroviruses in the laboratory of Dr. Dusty Miller. In September 2007, Dr. Wootton joined the faculty at the University of Guelph and is now an Associate Professor of Virology in the Department of Pathobiology. The overarching goal of research in her lab is to engineer viral therapies to prevent, treat or cure illnesses including monogenic disorders, infectious diseases and cancer. One of her core research areas focuses on adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors. Work in her lab centers on developing a AAV vectors for the treatment of monogenic lung diseases, such as surfactant protein B deficiency and cystic fibrosis, as well as developing AAV vectors for “Vectored Immunoprophylaxis” or VIP, a method to deliver broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibody against pathogens which lack suitable vaccines or therapies.
