Enterovirus D68 induced acute flaccid myelitis: What an old foe can teach us about an emerging infectious cause of paralysis

Matthew R. Vogt is an assistant professor in pediatrics (infectious diseases) and microbiology & immunology at UNC. He earned his degrees at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine. His thesis work in the laboratory of Michael Diamond, MD, PhD focused on the study of antibody modification of West Nile virus infection. He completed a residency in pediatrics at the Boston Combined Residency Program of Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center. Vogt then moved to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for a fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases.

With the support of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society-St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Fellowship Program in Basic Research, Vogt joined the laboratory of James E. Crowe, Jr., MD. In the Crowe laboratory, he isolated human monoclonal antibodies from subjects infected with enterovirus D68 (EV-D68), a virus that typically causes respiratory illness but also causes increasingly large outbreaks of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), a polio-like paralyzing illness. One of these antiviral monoclonal antibodies was able to protect mice from AFM-like disease and is being developed in partnership with biotechnology industry partners for use in humans.

Vogt joined the faculty at UNC in 2020. He sees patients as a consultant on the pediatric infectious diseases service at N.C. Children’s Hospital and runs a basic science laboratory focused on understanding why common pediatric respiratory virus infections cause severe disease in some people. Currently he focuses on EV-D68, studying both the pathogen and the host immune response. Projects focus on use of reverse genetic systems to create reporter viruses to infect both human respiratory epithelial cultures and small animal models such as mice. Human antibody effects on pathogenesis are also of particular interest.