Kalo is a molecular biologist and epidemiologist with a PhD from the University of Zambia. She has over 10 years of research experience specializing in viral infectious diseases such as Herpes viruses, Viral Hepatitis, and arboviruses. Her research has focused on improving diagnostics for resource-limited settings by using non-specialized methods that do not require refrigeration (Dry Blood Spots), improving turnaround time by replacing culture methods with comparable molecular tests, and transferring good laboratory practice to junior staff and in public health facilities.

As a PhD-Transition Fellow, her work is centered on utilizing Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) to deepen the understanding of the etiologies of central nervous system (CNS) infections. By examining various sample compartments such as cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and brain tissue, she aims to describe some of the molecular differences among the viruses that breach the protective barriers of the CNS. She is being supervised by Dr Omar Siddiqi of Harvard Medical School and University of Zambia and Prof Sam Bosomprah of the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ).