Infectious Diseases Faculty News

2018 News

• Ebbing Lautenbach, MD, MPH, MSCE
  Dr. Lautenbach was the recipient of the 2018 Leonard Berwick Memorial Teaching Award.
• William R. Short, MD, MPH
  Dr. Short was the recipient of a Penn Medicine Cares Grant for his Personal Touch proposal.
• Pablo Tebas, MD
  Dr. Tebas received a 2018 Top Ten Clinical Research Achievement Award for the first human trial of an anti-Zika virus DNA vaccine (University of Pennsylvania).
• Valerianna K. Amorosa, MD
  Dr. Amorosa was the recipient of the Francis H. Sterling Award for Educational Excellence. Dr. Francis Sterling served as a superb and caring clinician and teacher at the PVAMC and provided decades of dedicated service. This award recognizes a faculty member who possesses the ability to stir intellectual curiosity in students and residents, motivate residents and students to strive to acquire further knowledge, and must be dedicated to providing the highest quality of care to veteran patients.
• Valerianna K. Amorosa, MD
  Dr. Amorosa was the recipient of the Radhika Srinivasan Award for Humanism and Professionalism in Medicine. The award, created in 2005, is to recognize and honor distinguished faculty of the Department of Medicine who are exemplars for humanism and professionalism in medicine.
• Harvey M. Friedman, MD
  Dr. Friedman was the recipient of the Student Travel Award for Global Health Experience awarded by the Dean of the Perelman School of Medicine in honor of Harvey Friedman's 15 years of service as the founding Director of the Botswana-UPenn Partnership.
• Rahul M. Kohli, MD, PhD
  Dr. Kohli was elected into the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI). He is one of only 78 people nationally elected into ASCI.

2017 News

• Helen Koenig, MD, MPH
  Helen Koenig and colleagues develop a urine test to monitor patients' PrEP adherence to make sure they are taking enough medication to be protected against HIV.
  Addressing Adherence: PrEP's Achilles Heel
• Drew Weissman, MD, PhD
  Drew Weissman's lab demonstrates in an animal model a new way to deliver safer and more cost-effective therapeutic antibodies.
  Powerful RNA-based Technology Could Help Shape the Future of Therapeutic Antibodies
• Drew Weissman, MD, PhD
  Drew Weissman's publication in Nature provides evidence of promising immune responses in both mice and monkeys to a new Zika vaccine candidate.
  New Zika Vaccine Candidate Protects Mice and Monkeys with a Single Dose
• Ramin Herati, MD
  Ramin Herati and W. John Wherry found a way to identify the small population of cTfh present in the blood after an annual flu vaccine to monitor their contribution to antibody strength.
  Penn Team Tracks Rare T Cells in Blood to Better Understand Annual Flu Vaccine
• Harvey Friedman, MD
  Harvey Friedman's lab published that a new type of vaccine provides powerful protection in standard guinea pig and monkey models of HSV2 infection.
  New Genital Herpes Vaccine Candidate Provides Powerful Protection in Preclinical Tests

2016 News

• Pablo Tebas, MD
  Pablo Tebas and colleagues study immunotherapy to treat or even functionally cure HIV.
  New Research Shows Promise for Immunotherapy as HIV Treatment
• Pablo Tebas, MD
  Pablo Tebas talks about research into HIV/AIDS treatments.
  For This World AIDS Day, Hope Is High
• Dave Pegue, MD
  Dave Pegues' study shows the use of UV Light Robots in the hospital setting.
  UV Light Robots Cut C. Diff Transmissions by 25 Percent on Cancer Patient Floors, Penn Study Finds
• Ebb Lautenbach, MD, MPH, MSCE
  Dr. Lautenbach and colleagues receive funding for research on efforts to enhance antimicrobial stewardship strategies to optimize antibiotic use in the hospital, better identify patients who have a low likelihood of infection, and develop strategies to address the potential role of the hospital environment itself in the spread of superbugs.
  Stomping out the Superbugs
• Harvey Rubin, MD, PhD
  Harvey Rubin is mentioned for spearheading "Energize the Chain," a project that connects vaccine refrigerators to cell towers.
  This Bill Gates-backed Fund Wants to 'Disrupt' Vaccine Delivery in Poor Countries
• Vincent Lo Re, MD, MSCE
  Vin Lo Re Receives $3 million NCI Grant to Study Links between Liver Cancer and HIV
• Greg Bisson, MD, MSCE
  Greg Bisson shows that simple TB Screening and Preventive TB Therapy Sufficiently Treats Patients.
  Proactively Treating HIV Patients at Risk for Tuberculosis with Multi-Drug TB Regimens Doesn't Save More Lives