Scientist Spotlight: Brett Pickett, PhD

The son of a dentist, Brett Pickett grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah focused initially on a career in the family business (his siblings are hygienists and an oral surgeon). Brett believed from an early age that he would follow in his father’s footsteps. He enrolled in Brigham Young University committed to dental school. It was not until Brett’s zoology major was canceled that he became a student of microbiology, where he began researching antibiotic resistance genes in gut microbiota. Dental school was out. Brett received his B.S. in microbiology and continued his studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

While working in UAB’s bacteria pathogenesis labs, Brett’s path would take another detour as he encountered West Nile, Hepatitis C, and Dengue viruses in his work. He also began to cultivate an interest in computers, technology, and statistics as it related to biological data. These experiences have led to him to his current field of research: viral bioinformatics.

In 2010, Brett moved to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas to begin his postdoctoral research with Dr. Richard Scheuermann (presently the Director of JCVI La Jolla). Working with Richard, Brett began to shift his focus on how a virus behaves to examining how the human host is responding to being infected. While at UT Southwestern, Brett worked with Richard and his team to identify and develop new statistical, analysis, and visualization tools for the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Viral Pathogen Resource Bioinformatics Database (ViPR). In 2012, Brett moved his family to La Jolla to be a part of JCVI’s informatics team. During this time, his work focused on enhancing the Virus Pathogen Resource and Influenza Research Database bioinformatics resource centers.

Brett stepped away from JCVI for a brief period to work at Thomson Reuters. There he analyzed “-omics” data with pathway analysis and network-building tools, together with drugs and protein target information to better understand viral infection, differences between pathogenic and commensal bacteria, oncology, and other therapeutic areas. This experience allowed him to gain a better understanding of human genetics, disease profiling, and biomarker identification before returning to research at JCVI in 2016.

At JCVI, Brett continues to work on cutting-edge science. He appreciates “the access to collaborators to solve big problems,” and Brett’s efforts are addressing the world’s biggest health challenges. He recently received funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to develop a method for differentiating antibodies against Zika and other closely-related viruses in human patients.

Brett lives in San Diego with his wife and five children. When he is not in the lab, Brett enjoys golf, waterskiing, playing the piano, and visiting the beach with his family. His children, ranging in ages from 1-11, want to be scientists or doctors when they grow up. While there may be no dentists in this generation either, it is clear Brett’s children will have inspirational and accomplished footsteps in which to follow.