David S. Stephens, MD (principal investigator)
Stephen W. Schwarzman Distinguished Professor of Medicine
Executive Associate Dean for Research
Director, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine
Emory University School of Medicine
Dr. Stephens joined the Department of Medicine faculty in Emory University School of Medicine in 1982 and was named Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases in 1992. He has led the development of successful programs in infectious diseases and microbial pathogenesis and has been a major contributor to the creation and development of the Emory Vaccine Center and the Emory Center for AIDS Research (CFAR).
Dr. Stephens received his MD degree from Wake Forest University School of Medicine. After research experiences at Walter Reed and NIH, he completed his clinical training in internal medicine and infectious diseases and a research fellowship in microbial pathogenesis at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
His highly productive research program, continuously funded by competitive grants since 1981 (NIH R01, CDC, VA Merit Awards, etc.), has focused on the basis for pathogenesis of the major agents of bacterial meningitis: Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae as well as on innate immunity, bacterial vaccines and vaccine strategies. His laboratory is an international leader in efforts to define the molecular basis for virulence and vaccines to prevent the cause of epidemic meningitis, the meningococcus. He has contributed over 225 publications in infectious diseases, molecular pathogenesis, epidemiology and immunology. Along with his faculty appointment in the Department of Medicine, Dr. Stephens is Microbiology and Immunology in the School of Medicine and Professor of Epidemiology at Emory's Rollins School of Public Health.
Dr. Stephens is a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America; a member of the Association of Professors of Medicine, Association of American Physicians; and has served on NIH, VA, CDC and FDA review panels. He was chair of the FDA National Vaccine Advisory Committee and a liaison member of the HHS National Vaccine Advisory Committee and a Senior Scientific Consultant to the Meningitis and Special Pathogens Branch at CDC. In 1988 Dr. Stephens co-founded the Atlanta Active Surveillance Project (now the Georgia Emerging Infections Program), a population-based surveillance and clinical research program. In 2001, he led CDC's clinical emergency response team in defining clinical issues in prophylaxis, diagnosis and treatment of B. anthracis infections.
Dr. Stephens has served as the site principal investigator for the NIH-sponsored Southeastern Regional Center of Excellence for Emerging Infections and Biodefense, the CDC-supported Southeastern Center for Emerging Biologic Threats, and the NIH-funded Exploratory Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Vaccinology. He also founded and directed the Emory University NIH K30 Clinical Research Curriculum Award and served as the Interim Chair and Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine at Emory. The infectious diseases program he directs has graduated over 100 fellows and his laboratory has trained over fifty infectious diseases fellows, postdoctoral fellows, medical students, and undergraduates in bacterial pathogenesis. In addition, he has served as the thesis advisor for five PhD or MS degree candidates and has served on 17 PhD graduate committees in microbiology and molecular genetics.
Jeff M. Sands, MD (senior co-principal investigator)
Juha P. Kokko Professor of Internal Medicine
Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Research
Director, Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine
Emory University School of Medicine
Dr. Sands came to Emory University School of Medicine in 1988 as a clinical renal fellow and joined the Renal Division faculty in 1989. He is board certified in both internal medicine and nephrology. He is the principal investigator of a continuously funded, NIH R01 grant from 1989-2011 and is the principal investigator of an NIH T32 training grant in nephrology. He is co-principal investigator of an NIH P01 that involves faculty in the Renal Division and the Department of Physiology. Dr. Sands has held leadership positions in the American Physiological Society, American Heart Association, and American Society of Nephrology. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Physiology.
Arlene B. Chapman, MD (co-principal investigator, program director for CIN)
Professor of Medicine
Associate Director, Nephrology Fellowship Program
Director, Hypertension and Renal Diseases Research Center
General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) Program Director
Emory University School of Medicine
Prior to becoming Program Director of the Emory GCRC, Dr. Chapman served as the site-specific director of the Grady satellite GCRC and was responsible for the development of a successful and active research unit. During her tenure at Emory, she has developed a disease registry of over 500 families with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) and over 800 African-Americans with essential hypertension. She currently holds peer-reviewed grant support with three UO1s and one R01. She has worked continuously as an active GCRC participant for almost 20 years in clinical and translational research.
Elizabeth Ofili, MD (co-principal investigator)
Associate Dean for Clinical Research
Director of the Clinical Research Center
Chief of Cardiology and Professor, Department of Medicine
Morehouse School of Medicine
A national and internationally recognized expert in the field of echocardiography, Dr Ofili continues to actively evaluate the role of echocardiography in clinical and population-based trials of hypertension and heart failure with particular relevance to health disparities. Her collaborative research efforts helped to establish several major research centers of excellence and training programs at Morehouse School of Medicine. Dr Ofili has received numerous grant awards from the NIH, NASA, medical foundations and the pharmaceutical industry totaling over $56 million. She has mentored over 35 clinical and research fellows and 26 undergraduate students. As a recipient of the National Institutes of Health Preventive Cardiology Academic Award, Dr. Ofili established large clinical patient databases at Grady Memorial Hospital in congestive heart failure, chest pain and dyslipidemia. She is a past President of the National Association of Black Cardiologists and sits on the Board of Trustees of the Georgia Medical Care Foundation.
Larry V. McIntire, PhD (co-principal investigator)
The Wallace H. Coulter Chair and Professor
Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University School of Medicine
Dr. McIntire is a Founding Fellow and past President of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering. He is past President and Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) and past President of the North American Society of Biotechnology. In 2001, Dr. McIntire was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and was appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Annals of Biomedical Engineering (the journal of the Biomedical Engineering Society. Additionally, Dr. McIntire is the 2003 recipient of the BMES Distinguished Service Award and Presidential Award.
Barbara J. Stoll, MD (co-principal investigator, program director for pediatrics)
George W. Brumley, Jr. Professor and Chair of Pediatrics
President, Emory Children's Center
Emory University School of Medicine
Medical Director, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston
Dr. Stoll is an internationally recognized pediatrician who specializes in issues of neonatal infectious disease and child survival. Dr. Stoll has been a faculty member at Emory since 1986 and continuously funded by the NIH since 1991. She is a leading investigator in neonatology and directs part of the National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD) Network to Study the Scope and Causes of Stillbirths in the United States.
 |
