Division of Infectious Diseases

A metatranscriptomics method developed by Vanderbilt researchers simultaneously characterizes viruses, microbiome and host response in nasal swabs, opening opportunities to explore molecular interactions directly in clinical samples.

Celestine Wanjalla, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, is among 17 recipients of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation 2021 Clinical Scientist Development Award.

Analyzing electronic health records (EHR) of 9,748 patients diagnosed with COVID-19, Cosmin Bejan, PhD, Elizabeth Phillips, MD, and colleagues at Vanderbilt University Medical Center asked whether COVID disease severity correlated with any drugs that happened to be taken by these patients in the months leading up to their diagnosis.

David Aronoff, MD, Addison B. Scoville Jr. Professor of Medicine and director of the Division of Infectious Diseases, is departing Vanderbilt University Medical Center to become chair of the Department of Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine.

A report of more than 23,000 health care workers and employees at Vanderbilt University Medical Center who received the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 vaccine shows that a risk stratification screening mechanism for potential allergies to the vaccine worked exceedingly well as the vaccine program rolled out in December 2020.

Hospital data from a CDC network that monitors influenza revealed that adults hospitalized for COVID-19 in the early months of the pandemic were 20x more likely to die compared to hospitalized influenza patients.

Vanderbilt researchers find that heterosexually active Black males are the least likely to establish HIV care within one month of diagnosis and suggest that targeted interventions focus on this population.