Sarah 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 oncogenic retroviruses and lung gene therapy in the laboratory of Dr. Dusty Miller. In September 2007, she joined the faculty at the University of Guelph and is now an Associate Professor of Virology in the Department of Pathobiology.

Dr. Wootton’s research program is focused on engineering viral therapies to prevent, treat, or cure illnesses including infectious diseases, cancer, and monogenic disorders. One of her core research areas focuses on gene therapy. Work in her lab centers on developing adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based gene therapies for the treatment of monogenic lung diseases, including surfactant protein B deficiency and cystic fibrosis, as well as developing a robust platform for “Vectored Immunoprophylaxis” or VIP, in which AAV vectors are used to deliver broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibody genes to mediate robust and prolonged protection from pathogens which lack suitable vaccines or therapies. Another major focus of her lab is the development of viral vectored vaccines and oncolytic viral therapies based on Newcastle disease virus (NDV) and parapox Orf virus (ORFV).