Infectious Disease

Pushing Boundaries in Infectious Disease Research

Harmful microbes evolve constantly, driving the need for advanced research to combat them. Infectious disease research at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center ranges from neonatal influenza vaccine development to antimicrobial resistance to using targeted immunotherapy to treat malignancies. Our preclinical and clinical researchers use specialized resources, such as a Fortessa 18 color flow cytometry analyzer and an IVIS Lumina III in vivo imaging system, to engage in fundamental research on infectious disease.

Preclinical

When you work with Wake Forest Innovations, you get access to researchers who are experts in infectious disease, from studying the molecular and cellular biology of pathogens to examining the role of the immune system, the development of vaccines and the mechanisms of coinfection for some of the most harmful diseases. 

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center supports vaccine development for special populations, most notably pediatrics by way of our African green vervet neonatal nursery. The first of its kind, this unique resource provides nonhuman primate models appropriate for the development of vaccines intended for children and infants. Our experts can help devise, implement and analyze your study and its results using this unique resource.

Key Areas of Research

  • Neonatal influenza vaccine development
  • Adaptive immunity
  • Infectious disease and cancer
  • Molecular mechanisms of acute inflammation
  • Secondary and coinfections
  • B cell responses to carbohydrate antigens
  • T cell apoptosis
  • Immune memory

Clinical

Partnering with Wake Forest Baptist on your clinical research gives you access to experts in HIV and Hepatitis C, tropical medicine and bacterial infections and treating immune compromised patients. Wake Forest Baptist’s Section on Infectious Disease is committed to excellence in education, patient care and clinical research. The group consists of clinician-scientists with broad areas of interest, many of whom are cross-appointed in other areas, such as Hematology/Oncology, Microbiology/Immunology, Molecular Medicine and the Sticht Center on Aging.

Clinical research at Wake Forest is support by the Ryan White HIV Primary Care and Infectious Diseases Specialty Clinic—one of the largest in the state—that follows approximately 1,900 patients with HIV. The Infectious Disease department also offers preventive and curative medicine in the fields of tropical medicine and infectious diseases, military and migration medicine through the International Travel Clinic.

Key Areas of Research

  • Sexually transmitted disease
  • HIV
  • Antibiotic-resistant organisms
  • Transmission dynamics
  • Hepatitis C
  • Immuno-compromised patients
  • Education and clinical decision making
  • Sepsis
  • Antimicrobial resistance
  • Fungal infection
  • Prosthetic device infection
  • Bone and joint infection
  • Antiretroviral therapy

Contact Us About Your Infectious Disease Research

Start a conversation with us to discover how our experts and resources can add to your preclinical and clinical research projects on infectious diseases.
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