Dr. Haiping Hao, PhD, serves as Director of UTMB’s Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Core and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. He has significantly advanced the application of viral genome sequencing in public health by applying NGS to track mutations and inform public health responses for pathogen surveillance. His work led to the rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 variants, real time outbreak monitoring and understanding of zoonotic spillovers, in line with the One Health framework. His recent work sequencing H5N1 samples from cattle in Texas demonstrates the power of genomic tools across species and settings to anticipate disease dynamics and support vaccine development.