Shigetoshi Eda

Shigetoshi Eda serves as Professor in the Department of Forestry, Wildlife & Fisheries at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with concurrent appointments as Co-Chair of the UT Chronic Wasting Disease Working Group, Associate Director of the Center for Wildlife Health, Adjunct Associate Professor in Microbiology, and Affiliate Faculty at the National Institute for Mathematical & Biological Synthesis.

His educational background includes a Ph.D. from Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Science and postdoctoral research at the University of California, Riverside. He joined the University of Tennessee faculty in 2003 after completing his postdoctoral training.

Dr. Eda's research program pioneers rapid diagnostic platforms for animal infectious diseases, specializing in chronic wasting disease and Johne's disease diagnostics through electrochemical biosensors and AC electrokinetic capacitance sensing. His work bridges veterinary medicine, electrical engineering, and computational biology to develop field-deployable tools that improve sensitivity, specificity, and cost-efficiency over conventional methods like ELISA and PCR. Current projects include mathematical modeling of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms and IoT-based mastitis detection systems.

His publication record (79 papers as of 2022) reveals a strong trajectory toward point-of-care biosensors for animal health, with recent work emphasizing capacitive immunoassays, electrochemical antibody detection, and nucleic acid analysis. These studies consistently address critical gaps in on-site disease surveillance across veterinary diagnostics, food safety, and wildlife health applications.

Scientific recognition includes three patents for a Johne's disease diagnostic test licensed to a veterinary diagnostic company and commercialized in February 2015. He has secured multiple extramural grants and contracts to advance his diagnostic platform development.

Dr. Eda actively mentors graduate researchers, including Ph.D. graduate Ashutosh Wadhwa (now CDC postdoc) and numerous student co-authors on publications. His laboratory maintains strategic partnerships with electrical engineering departments and veterinary diagnostic facilities to accelerate technology translation. Current grant funding supports the development of ACEK-based capacitance sensing devices for infectious disease detection in agricultural settings.

The Center for Wildlife Health provides his primary research infrastructure, facilitating collaborations on wildlife disease diagnostics and serving as the operational base for the UT Chronic Wasting Disease Working Group he co-chairs.