Chief's Message

The Division of Infectious Diseases at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine is committed to enhancing our understanding of domestic and global infectious diseases and their complications.  Our goal is to develop new and more effective ways to prevent, treat and cure all infectious diseases.  This commitment is displayed through our dedication to basic laboratory and clinical research, clinical care and education.

Our robust research portfolio is primarily funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in addition to foundations and private sponsors.  We engage in a broad array of transformative antimicrobial research.  We are very strong in HIV-basic laboratory, clinical, translational and epidemiological investigations through the Third Coast Center for AIDS Research, the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study, the HIV Outpatient Study, the AIDS Clinical Trials Group and the Advancing Clinical Therapeutics Globally Research Consortium.  We are a member of the Point-of-Care Technologies Research Network which plays a key role in developing point-of-care and at-home tests for a variety of diseases including coronavirus-19 infections and HIV.  Through cutting-edge technology, computational tools and clinical science, our scientists work to better understand, diagnose and treat the complex biology of many infections such as influenza, Mpox, SARS-CoV-2, hepatitis B and C, malaria, salmonellosis, and dengue.  These efforts are inspired by our quest for clinical and teaching excellence which is continually renewed by our commitment to identifying optimal patient outcomes across the entire spectrum of infectious diseases.  We are intensely involved in efforts to identify emerging pathogens and countermeasures in the division’s Emerging and Re-Emerging Pathogens Program (EREPP). Our nationally ranked faculty in transplant infectious diseases undertake broad cutting-edge research, including HIV-to-HIV organ transplantation and infections in immune compromised hosts.  We have strong collaborative research which are advancing our understanding of mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance and stewardship into the epidemiology of hospital-acquired infections.  We collaborate with key public health stakeholders to maximize the community impact of these activities.  Our work has an established, sustainable and strong global reach, with active research programs in Nigeria, Mali, Tanzania, South Africa, Peru, Brazil, Columbia and Pakistan.  Our global work encompasses diagnosis and treatment of HIV and its complications, identification of biomarkers for HIV-associated cancers, diagnostics for emerging and re-emerging infections, and strategies to defeat malaria. 

The Infectious Diseases Division pairs its research efforts with outstanding clinical expertise.  Our clinical faculty offer an exceptional depth and breadth of specialized patient care through the facilities of Northwestern Medicine in our Infectious Diseases Center which provides clinical excellence in the treatment of rare, chronic and common infectious diseases.  We are able to achieve remarkable treatment results in part, because of the research that informs our expert care.  Our main goal is to further our understanding of fundamental problems in biology and medicine and then to apply this enhanced understanding to compassionate, patient -centered care in our hospitals and clinics. 

We do all this and at the same time foster the career aspirations of promising infectious disease clinicians, epidemiologists, and physician scientists through an ACGME-accredited fellowship program with research support from a T32-Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Institutional Training Grant. The training experience is designed to meet the specific goals of each fellow, thereby facilitating a transition to a successful and fulfilling career in academic medicine.