Pediatric Infectious Disease Society honors Creech
Buddy Creech, M.D., MPH, assistant professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases, has received the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society’s (PIDS) Young Investigator Award for 2012.
Buddy Creech, M.D., MPH
The award recognizes a young physician nationally each year for outstanding contributions in clinical or basic research in pediatric infectious diseases.
Creech, who serves as associate director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program (VVRP) and the National Institutes of Health-funded Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit, has become internationally known for his research concerning methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
His mentor, Kathryn Edwards, M.D., the Sarah H. Sell and Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Pediatrics and director of the VVRP, nominated Creech for the award. Edwards said Creech’s work with MRSA includes more than 30 publications and spans a wide range of topics with potential to prevent and treat MRSA infections.
“In addition, Buddy is a talented individual who is extremely committed to an academic career as a physician-scientist. An excellent collaborator who is respectful of the opinions of others, he has made important contributions to his field and I can think of no other junior investigator more deserving of this award,” said Edwards.
In 2007, Creech was awarded the Young Investigator Award from the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America for his work in MRSA. He has served on multiple task forces with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the NIH.
He also has taken on leadership responsibilities through PIDS, serving on the Programs and Meetings Committee and the Research Affairs Committee, and was recently elected by the PIDS membership to serve on the Nominations and Awards Committee.
At Vanderbilt, Creech co-directs the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program and serves as associate director of the Vaccinology and Vaccine Preventable Diseases Fellowship Program.
He is currently working with colleagues at Vanderbilt and at New York University to characterize the importance of a newly discovered staphylococcal protein present in large amounts in those with potentially deadly staph blood infections. He is working with Vanderbilt collaborators to develop monoclonal antibodies to this new protein and is leading research to develop vaccines against Staphylococcus infection.