Christie Mayo is the head of the virology section at Colorado State University’s Diagnostic Medicine Center where she is actively involved in diagnostic test development. She received her DVM from the University of Georgia in 2006, completed a microbiology residency at CSU in 2008, and wrapped up her PhD and post-doctoral work at UC Davis in 2012. As the diagnostic virologist, she is uniquely positioned to support the interface of application and development in both conventional and novel (next-generation) diagnostic technologies. Currently, the main thrust of her research has led to characterizing the ecology and genetic diversity of an economically important arbovirus that affects livestock, the bluetongue virus. Additionally, her research has focused on developing novel diagnostics for the veterinary diagnostic community and utilizing next-generation sequencing to monitor and characterize infectious agents.