Christopher R. Polage, M.D.

Assistant Professor of Clinical Pathology

Director of Clinical Microbiology Laboratory

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
UC Davis Medical Center
Specialty Testing Center
3740 Business Dr.
Sacramento, CA 95820

e-mail

Clinical Interests

  • Utilization of laboratory testing for diagnosis of infectious diseases
  • Diagnosis of viral CNS and respiratory syndromes
  • Diagnosis of infection in the setting of colonizing microbial flora (e.g., VAP, sinus, etc.)
  • Access to laboratory testing and diagnosis in resource-limited settings (e.g., Africa)

 

Research Interests

  • Developing methods to improve the rapidity and clinical impact of infectious disease testing
  • Application of non-culture based methods (e.g., broad-range PCR, microarray, POC testing)
  • Identification of markers of pathogenicity, virulence and clinical prognosis

 

Brief Biography

Christopher Polage received a bachelor degree in Biology (1992) and Doctor of Medicine (2000) from the University of New Mexico where he was a post sophomore fellow in pathology and participated in infectious disease research involving Hantavirus. He completed a clinical internship in Internal Medicine at the University of Colorado and residency training in anatomic and clinical pathology at the University of Utah, receiving an award for research involving the identification of non-fermenting Gram negative bacteria via amplification and sequencing of 16s rDNA. He stayed in Utah to complete a two year fellowship in Medical Microbiology at ARUP Laboratories, serving as the Acting Assistant Medical Director of Mycobacteriology during his second year. Throughout his medical school, residency and fellowship training, Christopher Polage was actively involved in medical relief and research related work in the developing world including Peru and Africa and was partially supported as a Yale/Johnson & Johnson Physician Scholar in International Health in 2005.

Currently, Christopher Polage is board certified in Medical Microbiology and Anatomic and Clinical Pathology and serves as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pathology in the UC Davis School of Medicine and as the Director of the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory at the UC Davis Medical Center.

Christopher Polage is a member of the College of American Pathologists, the American Society for Microbiology and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.