OscarGilberto(Gomez-Duarte)GomezMD

Summary

• I am a physician scientist with PhD in microbiology and immunology and clinical training in pediatrics and pediatric infectious diseases. My overall goal is to help decrease the morbidity and mortality of childhood infections through excellence in research, education and patient care. As chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Pediatrics, I provide excellence in patient care locally and abroad, and I oversee patient care services, infection control and antibiotic stewardship programs.
  
  I established and lead a global health research program, the International Enteric Vaccines Research Program (IEVRP), on the epidemiology, pathogenesis and vaccine development of childhood gastrointestinal infections. This program is dedicated to biomedical research, scientific training and international collaborations in Latin America, Southeast Asia and the United States. My collaborative scientific achievements with IEVRP include developing rapid diagnostic tools for diarrheal disease surveillance, identifying the most prevalent diarrheal pathogens and detecting emergent intestinal pathogens. My collaborators and I also worked on vaccine development research studies on pediatric infectious diseases associated with a high burden of disease. A long-term goal of these studies is to facilitate public health interventions for managing and preventing common infection diseases in children. Our studies on bacterial pathogenesis include genetic and phenotypic characterization of emergent E. coli pathogens and the role of surface proteins on gut colonization. Enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) bacteria are important causes of diarrhea in travelers and children in the developing world. Our vaccine development research evaluates immunogenicity and immunoprotection of ETEC antigens delivered as live vaccines or purified proteins.