Research Tracks & Mentors

One of the greatest strengths of the UC San Diego site is the involvement of our highly successful research faculty who will serve as mentors for the RAPID program.  UC San Diego is one of the nation's top research institutions, and our research faculty mentors have a variety of expertise in infectious diseases research.

Potential Research Mentors

A sample of potential research mentors, by research track, from a campus-wide pool for the UC San Diego RAPID program are found in the table and links below.

If you have any questions, please email hsfacaffairs@ucsd.edu.

Host-Pathogen Interactions Research Track

First Name, Last Name, Degree

Department

Research Interest

Susan L. Ackerman, PhD	Cellular and Molecular Medicine & Neurobiology	Defining the molecular pathways necessary to maintain homeostasis in both developing and aging mammalian neurons
Brookie Best, PharmD, MAS	Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences	Clinical pharmacokinetics, clinical pharmacology, obstetric pharmacology, pediatric pharmacology
Sinem Beyhan, PhD^#	Medicine & J. Craig Venter Institute	Microbe-host interactions with a specific focus on the discovery of anti-fungal molecules, elucidation of gene pathways in Burkholderia and discovery of anti-Burkholderia drugs, and fungal genome assembly and annotation
Ethan Bier, PhD	Cell and Developmental Biology	Genetics and biology of malaria vectors, bacterial toxin action
Ben Croker, PhD	Pediatrics	Cell death, neutrophil biology, innate immunity
Shane Crotty, PhD	Medicine & La Jolla Institute for Immunology	Immunity against infectious diseases and how the immune system remembers infections and vaccines
Laura Crotty Alexander, MD	Medicine	Effects of vaping and e-cigarettes on lung inflammation
Pieter Dorrestein, PhD	Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences & Pediatrics	Metabolomics of the human microbiome and bacterial pathogens
Partho Ghosh, PhD	Chemistry and Biochemistry	Structural biochemistry of bacterial and protozoan pathogenesis
Pradipta Ghosh, MD	Medicine & Cellular and Molecular Medicine	Intracellular trimetric-GTPase system
Rob Knight, PhD	Pediatrics & Computer Science	Human microbiome and its impacts on health and disease
Amanda (Mandy) Lewis, PhD	Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences	The vaginal microbiome; glycans and the microbiome in health and disease
George Liu, MD, PhD	Pediatrics	Staphylococcal host-pathogen interactions, vaccine development
Gerald Morris, MD, PhD^#	Pathology	T lymphocyte function and development in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT)
Victor Nizet, MD*^§	Pediatrics & Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences	Bacterial pathogenesis, innate immunity, novel ID therapeutics
Bernhard Palsson, PhD	Bioengineering & Pediatrics	Systems biology of bacterial pathogens and antibiotic resistance
Manuela Raffatellu, MD	Pediatrics	Salmonella host-pathogen interactions, GI mucosal immunity
Varykina Thackray, PhD	Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences	Understanding the etiology and pathophysiology of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) including the role of the gut microbiome using relevant animal models
Emily Troemel, PhD	Cell and Developmental Biology	Host-pathogen interactions, Cryptosporidium, Pseudomonas
Amir Zarrinpar, MD, PhD^#	Medicine	Gut microbiome and its impact on human health
Elina Zuniga, PhD	Molecular Biology	Innate and adaptic immunity to viral infections

^*Track leader; ^§co-investigator; ^#associate professors; others are all full professors

HIV Research Track

First Name, Last Name, Degree

Department

Research Interest

Constance Benson, MD	Medicine	HIV clinical trial and design
Victor DeGruttola, ScD	Family Medicine & Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science	HIV biostatistics and study design
John Guatelli, MD	Medicine	HIV pathogenesis and restriction factors
Scott Letendre, MD	Medicine	NeuroAIDS and HCV clinical trials
Susan Little, MD	Medicine	Primary HIV infection and clinical trial design
David Looney, MD^#	Medicine	HIV molecular biology and next generation techniques
Natasha Martin, DPhil	Medicine	HIV and ID epidemic modeling
Sheldon Morris, MD	Medicine	HIV and sexually transmitted infections and clinical trial design
Davey Smith, MD, MAS*^§	Medicine	HIV cure and molecular epidemiology
Stephen Spector, MD	Pediatrics	Pediatric HIV clinical trials
Celsa Spina, PhD^#	Medicine	HIV immunology

^*Track leader; ^§co-investigator; ^#associate professors; others are all full professors

Global Health & Neglected Infectious Diseases Research Track

First Name, Last Name, Degree

Department

Research Interest

Constance Benson, MD	Medicine	Mycobacteria therapeutics
Kimberly Brouwer, PhD	Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health & Human Longevity Science	The effect of mobility and marginalization on transmission and diffusion of infectious diseases
Conor Caffrey, PhD	Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences	Drugs and diagnostics for parasitic diseases
Scott Letendre, MD	Medicine	NeuroAIDS and HCV clinical trials
Anita Raj, PhD	Family Medicine & Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health & Human Longevity Science	Gender equity in global health, maternal/fetal health
Sharon Reed, MD	Medicine	Parasitic diseases and therapeutics
Timothy Rodwell, MD, PhD, MPH	Medicine	Antimicrobial resistance, rapid POC diagnostics for infectious diseases, global policy on treatment and diagnosis of infectious disease
Robert Schooley, MD	Medicine	Point of care diagnostics
Argentina Servin, MD, MPH^#	Medicine	Sexual violence, substance abuse, HIV/STI risk among vulnerable underserved populations
Aleem Siddiqui, PhD	Medicine	Viral hepatitis pathogenesis
Jay Silverman, PhD	Medicine	ID epidemiology in vulnerable populations
Davey Smith, MD, MAS^§	Medicine	Diagnostics for resource limited settings
Jamila Stockman, PhD	Medicine	ID and health disparities
Steffanie Strathdee, PhD	Medicine	ID epidemiology in vulnerable populations
Elizabeth Winzeler, PhD*^§	Pediatrics & Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences	Malaria pathogenesis

^*Track leader; ^§co-investigator; ^#associate professors; others are all full professors

Explore Faculty Research

For a comprehensive list of faculty and specific research, please visit the following programs and departments directly: