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Speaker Biosketches
Maria Aguero-Rosenfeld, M.D. is the director of the clinical pathology and microbiology laboratory at Bellevue Hospital Center and has worked on the laboratory diagnosis of tick-borne diseases for over 20 years. She has been a faculty member at New York Medical College since 1989 as a professor in the Departments of Pathology, Microbiology, and Medicine, and has been the director of clinical pathology at Westchester Medical Center since 2006.
Dr. Aguero-Rosenfeld obtained her M.D. from the University of Chile School of Medicine and completed residencies in internal medicine and clinical pathology, and a fellowship in medical microbiology, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Robert A. Aronowitz, M.D. is a professor and graduate chair of history and sociology of science, and professor of family medicine and community practice, at the University of Pennsylvania. At the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Aronowitz was the founding director of the health and societies program. He also founded and co-directs the university’s Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program. Dr. Aronowitz’s first book, Making Sense of Illness: Science, Society, and Disease (Cambridge 1998), explores changing disease definitions and meanings in the 20th century. He is currently finishing a project on the history of health risks in American medicine and society.
Dr. Aronowitz received his M.D. from the Yale School of Medicine.
John Aucott, M.D. is the founder of the Lyme Disease Research Foundation of Maryland, a public nonprofit organization founded to promote research
and education in Lyme disease. He is also the co-principal investigator for the prospective cohort study, SLICE, examining the impact of acute Lyme disease on long-term health outcomes and immune function. A graduate of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Dr. Aucott is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine with sub-specialty training in infectious disease and geographic medicine at University Hospitals of Cleveland. He served as the Section Head for General Internal Medicine and was the Residency Program Director at the Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center while on the faculty at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine from 1989–1996.
Stephen Barthold, D.V.M., Ph.D. is a Distinguished Professor of Veterinary and Medical Pathology at the University of California (UC) Davis, and director of the UC Davis Center for Comparative Medicine. His professional specialty is infectious diseases of laboratory rodents and biology of the laboratory mouse. In 1974, he was appointed assistant professor of comparative medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, with subsequent promotion to full professor in 1989. He earned diplomate status in the American College of Veterinary Pathologists in 1976, and he moved to UC, Davis, in 1997.
Dr. Barthold received his B.S. and D.V.M. from UC, Davis, in 1967 and 1969. He sought further training in experimental and comparative pathology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and received his M.S. and Ph.D. in 1973 and 1974, respectively.
Linda K. Bockenstedt, M.D. is the Harold W. Jockers Professor of Medicine in Rheumatology and director for Professional Development and Equity at Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Bockenstedt’s research interests are in infection-related rheumatic disease, with a focus on the tick-borne spirochetal infection Lyme disease. Her most recent studies employ state-of-the-art imaging techniques to examine tick-spirochete-mammalian host interactions, including optical tweezers to study spirochete outer membrane physical properties that promote evasion of phagocytosis, and multiphoton microscopy to image in real-time tick-borne spirochete invasion, dissemination, and persistence in mice.
Dr. Bockenstedt is a member of the Ad Hoc Lyme Disease Study Group and served on the panel that revised the clinical practice guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease, human granulocytic anaplasmosis, and babesiosis, published in 2006 by the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
She is a graduate of Harvard College in 1977 and the Ohio State University College of Medicine in 1981, and completed residency training in internal medicine at Yale–New Haven Hospital in 1984.
Edward B. Breitschwerdt, D.V.M. is a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. He is also an adjunct professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center, and a diplomate, American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM). Dr. Breitschwerdt directs the Intracellular Pathogens Research Laboratory in the Center for Comparative Medicine and Translational Research at North Carolina State University. He also co-directs the Vector Borne Diseases Diagnostic Laboratory and is the director of the NCSU-CVM Biosafety Level 3 Laboratory.
Dr. Breitschwerdt’s clinical interests include infectious diseases, immunology, and nephrology, and his research has emphasized vector-transmitted intracellular pathogens. Most recently, he has contributed to cutting-edge research in the areas of animal and human bartonellosis.
Dr. Breitschwerdt received his M.D. from the University of Georgia and completed an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Missouri between 1974 and 1977.
Wendy Brown, Ph.D., M.P.H. is a Regents Professor in the Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology at Washington State University (WSU). Dr. Brown’s major research interest has been in the area of vaccine development for globally important tick-borne infectious diseases. This includes understanding the host-pathogen interaction and identifying vaccine antigens that stimulate recall responses by T lymphocytes from immune animals.
At WSU, Dr. Brown initiated a new research program to identify candidate vaccine antigens within the protective outer membrane fraction of a tick-transmitted rickettsial pathogen of cattle, Anaplasma marginale.
Sam T. Donta, M.D. is retired from a long career as an infectious disease specialist. He worked at the University of Iowa where he became a professor of medicine and chief of infectious diseases before moving to the University of Connecticut where he was chief of infectious diseases for 11 years. Dr. Donta then moved to Boston University/Boston VA for 10 years before his retirement. His basic interests have been in microbial toxins, but he has also been involved in a number of clinical trials. For the last 20 years, he has been interested in Lyme disease, and he continues to practice and do research on the topic.
Dr. Donta received his B.S. from Allegheny College and his M.D. from Albert Einstein College of Medicine; he did an internship/residency in Internal Medicine at University of Pittsburgh Hospitals.
J. Stephen Dumler, M.D. is a professor in the Department of Pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Dumler is a medical
microbiologist and pathologist with extensive training in the cellular microbiology of infectious diseases, with a focus on rickettsial infections, tick-borne infections, and other vector-borne diseases. He played key roles in the discovery of human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA), identification of its etiologic agent, description of the disease, development of serological and molecular diagnostic methods, and investigation of the antimicrobial sensitivity of anaplasma phagocytophilum.
Dr. Dumler has also significantly contributed to the understanding of Ehrlichia and anaplasma. His work on these organisms includes initial discovery, phenotypic characterization, taxonomic classification, development of diagnostic tools that are the current laboratory standards, identification of the reservoirs and vector hosts of these pathogens, and characterization of the virulence factors and mechanisms of pathogenesis. His current work crosses from translational medicine to basic science, including the investigation of epigenetics of intracellular pathogen infections.
Brian A. Fallon, M.D. serves as director of the Lyme and Tick-borne Diseases Research Center at the Columbia University Medical Center, director of the Center for Neuroinflammatory Disorders and Biobehavioral Medicine, and professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University and the NYS Psychiatric Institute. As a clinical research scientist, Dr. Fallon has conducted NIH-supported research in the medical/neurologic domain on chronic Lyme encephalopathy and in the psychiatric domain on somatoform disorders and obsessive compulsive disorders. His primary research approaches have included structural and functional neuroimaging, spinal fluid and serologic assessments, and clinical treatment trials. His primary focus in Lyme disease over the last 10 years has been on identifying improved diagnostic tests and biomarkers of treatment response and on evaluating different treatments for patients with chronic symptoms that have persisted despite standard courses of antibiotic therapies for Lyme disease.
Howard Ginsberg, Ph.D. is a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, Biological Resources Discipline, at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. He is unit leader of Patuxent’s Coastal Field Station and Professor in Residence at the University of Rhode Island. His emphasis is on understanding transmission dynamics and factors that influence human exposure to vector-borne zoonotic pathogens. This knowledge is used to develop efficient approaches to surveillance and management of vector-borne diseases that protect public health while minimizing negative effects on sensitive natural systems.
Dr. Ginsberg received his Ph.D. in entomology from Cornell University in 1979.
Afton Hassett, Psy.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist and an associate research scientist in the Department of Anesthesiology, Division of Pain Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School.
Currently, as a principal investigator at the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center under the direction of Dr. Daniel Clauw, she conducts research exploring the role of psychological and affective factors in chronic pain conditions like fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and Post Lyme Disease Syndrome. Although much of her research has targeted risk factors for poor symptomatic and neurobiological outcomes, she has been an advocate for identifying patient strengths and promoting resilience.
Dr. Hassett is a graduate of Colorado State University and received her doctorate from Alliant International University in San Diego, California, in 2000.
Nahed Ismail, Ph.D., M.Sc. is associate professor at the Department of Pathology, Meharry Medical College, and director of oral pathogen core at the Vanderbilt Institution of Clinical and Translational Research of the Vanderbilt-Meharry Alliance. Dr. Ismail studied several aspects of host-microbial interactions with particular emphasis on the immunopathogensis of infectious diseases caused by intracellular bacteria, and the immunoregulatory mechanisms that control the induction and effector functions of T lymphocytes during infection.
At the University of Texas Medical Branch, she established an independent research career in Ehrlichial and Rickettsial diseases with particular focus on protective immunity and immunopathogensis of this tick-borne emerging infectious disease. Her research on Rickettsial and Ehrlichial immunity, pathology, pathogenesis, and pathophysiology included important contributions to elucidating the protective or pathogenic immune mechanisms against Rickettsiae and Ehrlichiae that contribute to the development of mild or severe Ehrlichial and Rickettsial diseases.
She obtained a M.D. from Tanta University in Egypt in 1988, a M.Sc. in 1995 from the University of Toronto, and a Ph.D. from the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada, in 2000.
Richard F. Jacobs, M.D. is currently the Robert H. Fiser, Jr., Endowed Chair in Pediatrics and the chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), and the president of the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute. His research interests include the clinical and translational research trials of neonatal-infant anti-viral treatment of congenital and perinatal viral infections. He received his M. D. degree from UAMS in 1977 and completed his infectious diseases fellowship training in 1982 at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Peter J. Krause, M.D. is a senior research scientist in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. Dr. Krause carries out clinical, epidemiological, and translational research in the study of vector-borne disease. His primary focus has been on human babesiosis and two companion tick-borne infections, Lyme disease and human granulocytic anaplasmosis.
Dr. Krause and his colleagues were the first to identify the long-term persistence of babesial infection in people and the first to characterize persistent and relapsing babesiosis in immunocompromised hosts in a case series. They quantitated the risk of transmission of babesiosis and Lyme disease though blood transfusion, developed several antibody and molecular-based tests for the diagnosis of babesiosis, and carried out the first antibiotic trial for the treatment of human babesiosis. They also were the first to characterize the frequency and clinical outcome of tick-borne disease coinfection.
Dr. Krause received his B.A. with honors in biology from Williams College and his M.D. from Tufts University School of Medicine. He completed his pediatric internship and residency at Yale–New Haven Hospital and Stanford University Medical Center and his pediatric infectious diseases training at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Matthew Liang, M.D., M.P.H. is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, professor of health policy and management at Harvard School of Public Health, and a primary care physician and rheumatologist. He is also the director of special projects of the Robert B. Brigham Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases Clinical Research Center at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and he is medical director of rehabilitation services.
His research interests include basic methodologic work in clinimetrics, clinical trials, the epidemiology of rheumatic disease and disability, outcomes research, and the identification of modifiable risk factors in high risk and disadvantaged populations. In Lyme disease, his group studied the cost-effectiveness of the Lyme vaccine, studied long-term outcomes of Lyme disease, identified barriers to tick removal and avoidance, and conducted a clinical trial of over 30,000 travelers demonstrating the effectiveness of a novel health educational intervention in preventing Lyme and other tick-borne illnesses.
He is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University in philosophy and chemistry, Harvard Medical School, and the Harvard School of Public Health where he studied tropical public health and epidemiology.
Benjamin J. Luft, M.D. is an Edmund D. Pellegrino Professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases at State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook.
From 1994–2006, he was chairman of the Department of Medicine and Director of Infectious Diseases. His research into the molecular biological structure of antigens of Borrelia species is for developing sensitive and specific diagnostic tests, as well as the development of a vaccine, which is undergoing testing in Europe. Dr. Luft led the NIH AIDS Clinical Trials Group effort on toxoplasmosis from 1986–1996. He has developed new antibiotics and diagnostic approaches to Toxoplasma gondii.
Dr. Luft obtained his B.A. from SUNY at Stony Brook in 1973 and his M.D. from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1976. He received his infectious disease training at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Jere W. McBride, Ph.D., M.S. is associate professor in the Departments of Pathology and Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. In addition to his academic appointments, he is a scientist in the Sealy Center for Vaccine Development, and a member of the Center for Biofense and Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Institute of Human Infections and Immunity. He is has research projects to study pathobiology, immunity and vaccine and diagnostic development related to human and veterinary ehrlichioses.
His current research interests include identification and molecular characterization of protective immunodeterminants of Ehrlichia, investigation of pathogenic mechanisms and host-pathogen interactions involving secreted effector proteins of Ehrlichia, understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in the adaptation of Ehrlichia to mammalian and arthropod hosts, and translational research directed at the development of diagnostics and vaccines for the ehrlichioses.
He received his doctorate in comparative pathology from the University of California at Davis in 1997, followed by postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas Medical Branch from 1998–2000, where his studies focused on vaccine development for the ehrlichioses.
Captain Jennifer McQuiston, D.V.M., M.S. serves as the epidemiology activity leader in the Rickettsial Zoonoses Branch in the Division of Vectorborne Diseases (DVBD) at the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Dr. McQuiston joined CDC in 1998 as an epidemic intelligence service officer, conducting research and the investigation of outbreaks related to zoonotic diseases. She has worked extensively on rickettsial diseases such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever, ehrlichiosis, anaplasmosis, Q fever, typhus, and cat scratch disease.
She attended Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, where she received a D.V.M. in 1997 and an M.S. in Molecular
Biology in 1998. She is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine.
Paul Mead, M.D., M.P.H. is chief of the epidemiology and surveillance activity in the Bacterial Diseases Branch of the Division of Vector-borne Diseases at the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). His current responsibilities include surveillance, research, and prevention activities for Lyme disease, plague, tularemia, and tick-borne relapsing fever. Dr. Mead is board certified in Infectious Diseases by the American Board of Internal Medicine.
Dr. Mead received his M.D. from the University of Colorado and completed Internal Medicine Residency at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, followed by an Infectious Diseases Fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. In 1994, Dr. Mead received a M.P.H. from the University of California, Berkeley.
Ulrike (Uli) G. Munderloh, D.V.M, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of Minnesota. At the University of Minnesota, Dr. Munderloh examines the host-vector-pathogen interface of Anaplasma and Rickettsia species, using cell and molecular biology tools to study the functional genomics of this highly evolved relationship between bacteria, ticks, and humans.
Dr. Munderloh received her academic education in Munich and graduated from the school of veterinary medicine in 1975. She received a doctorate in the area of tropical veterinary medicine from the Institute of Comparative Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, in 1977.
Steven J. Norris, Ph.D. is currently the Robert Greer Professor in Biomedical Sciences and vice chair of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. Dr. Norris began his faculty career at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston in 1982 and continued studies on the physiology and in vitro culture of Treponema pallidum, the spirochete that causes syphilis. His group is currently screening a transposon insertion library in B. burgdorferi in an attempt to identify every gene important in Lyme disease pathogenesis. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and has served as the chair of the American Society for Microbiology Division of General Medical Microbiology and of the Gordon Research Conference on the Biology of Spirochetes.
Dr. Norris received a B.A. in psychobiology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), then gradually evolved toward microbiology
while obtaining an M.S. in biochemistry and molecular biology at UC Santa Barbara, and a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology at UCLA in 1980.
Susan O’Connell, M.D. is head of the Lyme Borreliosis Unit (LBU) at the Health Protection Agency’s Microbiology Laboratory at Southampton University Hospitals Trust, Southampton UK. The LBU provides laboratory diagnostic and clinical advisory service on Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections for the UK. She graduated in medicine from Dublin and trained in general medicine and family practice in the UK before specializing in microbiology and infectious diseases. She has worked at the LBU since 1990 and was a leading participant in the European Union Concerted Action on Lyme Borreliosis (EUCALB) initiative, in addition to other international collaborations. Current activities include an epidemiologic overview of European Lyme borreliosis for the European Centre for Disease Control, review of the EUCALB clinical case definitions, and development of European guidelines for the prevention, diagnosis, and management of Lyme borreliosis and other tick-borne infections.
She has a major commitment nationally to the prevention and early recognition of Lyme borreliosis, and she works closely with a wide range of health-care workers, occupational groups, recreational groups, and the media to promote awareness and risk reduction measures.
James H. Oliver, Jr., Ph.D. is director of the James H. Oliver, Jr. Institute of Arthropodology and Parasitology, and Callaway Professor of Biology Emeritus at Georgia Southern University. His current research focuses on more than 300 cultured Borrelia isolates and 5 tick vector species from the southeastern United States.
Dr. Oliver’s fields of specialization include medical entomology, acarology, and genetics focusing on defining tick-host-pathogen interrelationships including tick phenology and ecology, vector competency, transmission of microorganisms, isolation and in vitro cultivation of pathogens, their infectivity and pathogenesis, and vertebrate hosts as reservoirs of pathogens, among other topics. His emphasis is on producing fundamental knowledge that can be applied to prevention and intervention of arthropod pests and vectors of pathogens important in livestock, agriculture, and biomedicine.
Dr. Oliver has obtained a B.S. in biology, a M.S. in zoology, and a Ph.D. in entomology.
Richard S. Ostfeld, Ph.D. is a senior scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, a not-for-profit research institution in Millbrook, New York, dedicated to providing the science behind environmental solutions. He is also adjunct professor at Rutgers University and the University of
Connecticut. His research focuses on ecological determinants of human risk of exposure to infectious diseases, emphasizing Lyme and other tick-borne diseases as well as West Nile Virus.
He obtained his B.A. from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.
Juan Olano, M.D. is an associate professor in the Department of Pathology and director of the residency training program at the University of Texas Medical Branch.
His research interests are focused on obligate intracellular bacteria, namely, Rickettsiae and Ehrlichiae. His current research focuses on development of aerosolized animal models for rickettsiae, development of ultrasensitive diagnostic methods for rickettsial infections, and pathogenesis of rickettsial infections as it relates to molecular mechanisms of increased microvascular permeability.
Dr. Olano received his M.D. from the University of Cauca in Colombia in 1987.
José M. C. Ribeiro, M.D., Ph.D. is chief of the Vector Biology Section of the Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health. His research focus is on the role of vector saliva in feeding and parasite transmission by arthropods and in the ecology of vector-borne diseases. He joined the Department of Entomology of the University of Arizona in 1990 as full professor, and in 1996, he moved to NIAID as head of the Section of Vector Biology.
Dr. Ribeiro graduated from the State University of Rio de Janeiro and obtained his Ph.D. at the Biophysics Institute of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
Tom G. Schwan, Ph.D., M.S. is chief of the Laboratory of Zoonotic Pathogens and the Medical Entomology Section of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In recent years, his work has narrowed its focus to the biology of soft (argasid) ticks, the interaction of spirochetes in their tick vectors, improving serological tests for identifying human infections with spirochetes, and identifying geographic areas where tick-borne relapsing fever poses a risk for humans.
He received his undergraduate training in biology at California State University, Hayward, where he also did his M.A. research on the fleas parasitizing grassland rodents. Dr. Schwan then studied at the University of California, Berkeley, to earn his Ph.D. in parasitology and medical entomology, while he also worked on fleas and the surveillance of plague with the Vector Control Section of the California State Department of Health.
Gregg Skall, J.D. is a member of the law firm Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC. He serves as counsel to the National Capital Lyme & Tick-Borne Disease Association, a pro bono client of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC.
He received his B.A. in 1966 at the Ohio State University and his J.D. in 1969 at the University of Cincinnati College of Law.
Gustavo Valbuena, M.D. is an instructor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Texas. He is a physician-scientist with training in anatomical, clinical, and experimental pathology. His expertise includes pathogenesis, immunology, and the development of animal models and in vitro systems for the study of rickettsial diseases. The research interests of his laboratory currently focus on four areas that are funded by the National Institutes of Health. These areas are the role of the endothelium in the regulation of the anti-rickettsial immune response, the identification of rickettsial antigens recognized by T cells and B cells (the first step in the development of an anti-rickettsial vaccine), the optimization of a humanized mouse model of rickettsial infections, and the development of a mouse model of scrub typhus.
He obtained his M.D. from Javeriana University in Bogota, Colombia, and subsequently completed residency training in pathology at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, Texas. Dr. Valbuena also received a Ph.D. in experimental pathology from UTMB.
David Jay Weber, M.D., M.P.H. is currently a professor of medicine and pediatrics in the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine, and a Professor of Epidemiology in the UNC School of Public Health. He also serves as the medical director of the Departments of Hospital Epidemiology (Infection Control), Occupational Health, and Environmental Health and Safety for the UNC Health Care System. He is an associate director of the North Carolina Statewide Infection Control Program and serves as director of the Regulatory Core for the UNC Clinical Translational Research Award. He is board-certified in internal medicine, infectious disease, critical care medicine, and preventive medicine.
His research interests include the epidemiology of healthcare-associated infections, new and emerging infectious diseases (Pfisteria, nontuberculous mycobacteria, SAR-coV, norovirus, community-associated MRSA), control of drug resistant pathogens, immunization practices (especially of healthcare workers), zoonotic diseases, and epidemiology of tuberculosis.
He received his B.A. from Wesleyan University in 1973, his M.D. from the University of California, San Diego, in 1977, his M.P.H. from Harvard
University in 1985. He completed his medicine residency and infectious disease fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1985.
Pamela Weintraub is the features editor at Discover magazine and the author of Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic, a personal memoir and journalistic investigation into the medical history, patient experience, and brutal political war over Lyme disease and the winner of the American Medical Writer Association book award, 2009. Weintraub has worked as a journalist covering health and biomedicine for national media since 1981 and is the author of 16 prior books on topics from the infant brain to bioterrorism to emergency medicine.
Janis J. Weis, Ph.D. is a professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City. Her laboratory studies the host–pathogen interactions associated with Borrelia burgdorferi infection and the pathogenesis of Lyme arthritis. The overall goals of her research are to understand the bacterial triggers required for arthritis development and the signaling pathways involved in disease progression. Dr. Weis maintains an active research laboratory at the University of Utah studying the mechanism and genetic regulation of Lyme arthritis development.
Dr. Weis received a B.A. in microbiology from the University of Kansas and a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Minnesota. She received post-doctoral training in Immunology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School from 1982–1986, where she studied structure/function aspects of innate host defense and viral infection.
Gary P. Wormser, M.D. is chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and vice chairperson of the Department of Medicine at New York Medical College. He is professor of medicine and pharmacology. At Westchester Medical Center, Dr. Wormser is chief of the section of infectious diseases, director and founder of the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program, and director and founder of the Lyme Disease Diagnostic Center. Dr. Wormser’s principal research interests are Lyme disease, babesiosis, and human granulocytic anaplasmosis.
Dr. Wormser received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and his M.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
