Layne.html

Scott P. Layne MD is a physician-scientist who is known for cross-disciplinary work involving biology, virology, applied physics, and policy-related issues. He is Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology, and Environmental Health Sciences at the University of California Los Angeles School of Public Health and past Member of the California NanoSystems Institute. He is an author of over 45 publications, including three U.S. patents on methods to access and operate automated high-throughput laboratory systems.

Dr. Layne pioneered the development of the High Speed, High Volume Laboratory Network for Infectious Diseases along with Dr. Tony J. Beugelsdijk at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The program, funded by congressionally directed Department of Defense investments and a grant from the California Office of Homeland Security, aims to enable near-real time laboratory testing and situational awareness for major infectious disease outbreaks, pandemics and bioattacks.

Dr. Layne served as the Principal Investigator of the Center for Rapid Influenza Surveillance and Response (CRISAR), which was a NIAID Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance. From 2007 to 2009, CRISAR undertook national and international surveillance on animal and human derived influenza strains, and actively contributed to NIAID's Pandemic Public Health Research Response Plan. Participating institutions included UCLA, University of California Davis, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Wildlife Conservation Society, and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Dr. Layne is an editor of Firepower in the Lab: Automation in the Fight Against Infectious Diseases and Bioterrorism (Joseph Henry Press, 2001) and also of Jane's Chem-Bio Handbook, 2nd and 3rd editions. In 1988, he organized the workshop A National Effort to Model AIDS Epidemiology for the Office of Science and Technology Policy and oversaw the publication of a White House report that influenced HIV/AIDS research priorities in the United States. In 1999, he also organized the meeting Automation in Threat Reduction and Infectious Disease Research: Needs and New Direction under the auspices of the Institute of Medicine and National Academy of Engineering. From August 2008 to May 2010, he served as a Member of the National Biosurveillance Advisory Subcommittee as authorized by Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-21.

From 1994 to 2010, Dr. Layne taught graduate level courses at UCLA on infectious diseases and public health preparedness for biological emergencies. He maintains guest scientist status at LANL and serves an instructor on bioterrorism preparedness for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and has lectured throughout the country in this capacity. He also maintains a clinical practice in adult infectious diseases and internal medicine in Los Angeles, CA.

Dr. Layne earned a Bachelor of Arts in chemistry from DePauw University in 1976 and Doctor of Medicine from Case Western Reserve University in 1980. He earned board certifications in internal medicine (1997 – 2007) and infectious diseases (1998 – 2008) with a fellowship in adult infectious diseases. He served as a postdoctoral fellow and staff member at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) from 1982 – 1986 and as a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 1986 – 1992.

While at the national laboratories, he focused on numerical simulations and laser spectroscopy investigations for bioenergetic solitons in proteins (Center for Nonlinear Studies), and on numerical simulations and laboratory investigations of human immunodeficiency virus' (HIV's) physical-chemical properties. His ground-breaking work on humoral immunity remains relevant to developing of HIV vaccines and included key measures of viral infectious stability, infectious fraction and neutralization kinetics with immunoglobulins and soluble blockers.

Curriculum vitae (pdf)