Trent Bushmaker, Technician, USA

Trent is the lab manager and biologist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Virus Ecology Unit in Montana. Trent earned a bachelor of science in Biotechnology at Montana State, in 2006. He has more than 13 years of experience in BSL3 working with a range of pathogens from Coxiella burnetii, SARS-CoV, influenza A virus, and MERS-CoV. Since 2009, Trent has worked at Rocky Mountain Laboratories and his research has focused on animal studies related to the aerobiology and transmission of high and maximum containment pathogens including Ebola virus and Nipah virus. In addition to maximum-containment work, Trent provides logistical and scientific support for field studies in Africa (Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia) and the Middle East (Jordan). Since joining the Virus Ecology Unit in 2013, Trent has been involved in diagnostic support of the 2014 West Africa Ebola virus outbreak in Liberia and ecological sampling missions in response to Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.