Welcome

For over a decade, the Wisconsin Viral research Group (WVRG) has investigated the role of human herpes virus six (HHV-6) in chronic disease and transplantation sequelae.

In a world with global travel and global economies, our new direction includes the discovery of viral disease in other regions of our planet, a mission inspired by the discovery of HHV-6 in 1988. Read our story. Our expanded mission includes the discovery of and investigation into the viral causes of known, but poorly understood, acute and chronic diseases as well as the viral etiology of new, previously unrecognized, diseases.

WVRG was founded in 1996 by Dr. Konstance Knox and Dr. Donald Carrigan who remain its chief scientists and sole owners. Drs. Knox and Carrigan established a Program for Virus Discovery in 1988 while working at the Medical College of Wisconsin. This Program is an active and expanding part of WVRG’s goals.

WVRG has both research and diagnostic labs and is:

• a CLIA certified clinical diagnostic laboratory
• a Contract Research Organization (CRO)
• a biorepository for specimens from a wide range of patient populations
• an independent research organization that performs both basic and applied research into viral causes of human and veterinary disease
• a research lab undertaking projects funded by grants from chronic disease support organization

Our diagnostic laboratory page contains links to information about our testing services, sample submission information and forms, and the types of samples held in our biorepository.

Our CRO page has information about our proposed testing method to study Chronic Wasting Disease in white-tail deer (Odocoileus virginianus), and a proposed decontamination procedure for the noroviruses.

The funded research page includes links to reports on the results of our research projects involving HHV-6 and either Multiple Sclerosis or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.