The Graduate College is pleased to present Combatting Global Infectious Diseases: Vaccines and Human Models, a lecture by University Scholar Beth D. Kirkpatrick, M.D., on Monday, April 4, 2022 at 4:30 PM in MedEdCenter 200 (Sullivan Classroom).

Infectious diseases still lead the list of causes of morbidity and mortality in low and middle income countries. The UVM Vaccine Testing Center has leveraged its research infrastructure to perform a wide range of human-centered research, focusing on infectious diseases impacting low resource settings, especially enteric and flavivirus (e.g., Dengue) infections. Whether through the performance of Phase I-III clinical trials, controlled human infection models, or observational studies, this research evaluates not only candidate vaccines, but also identifies and explores important gaps in our understanding of human immune responses and the natural history of disease.

Dr. Kirkpatrick is Professor and Chair in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Vermont (UVM) Larner College of Medicine. She holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and is an attending physician at the UVM Medical Center. She received her M.D. at Albany Medical College and performed an Internal Medicine residency and chief residency at the University of Rochester. She completed subspecialty and research training in Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins and received additional training in clinical tropical medicine in Lima, Peru. She is currently a fellow of the American College of Physicians, The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Dr. Kirkpatrick began her career with research interests in enteric infections, mucosal immunology, and vaccines. In 2001, she began the UVM Vaccine Testing Center, which is now a multi-disciplinary team researching candidate vaccines and vaccine immunology. With the goal of understanding and preventing infectious diseases around the globe (especially in low-income countries), this committed and growing team of investigators performs both investigator-initiated and industry-supported phase I-III human vaccine clinical trials and controlled human infection models. In the laboratory, the VTC interrogates human immunology to understand vaccine responsiveness, correlates of protection, and vaccine failure. Currently the team focuses on flaviviruses (e.g., Dengue, Zika) and enteric infections (e.g., rotavirus, campylobacter, polio), and now, SARS-CoV2. Dr. Kirkpatrick is also the Principal Investigator of one of the National Institutes of Health-funded Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grants at UVM; the Translational Global Infectious Diseases Research (TGIR) Center, which is focused on the development of the next generation of faculty investigators from both the biomedical and quantitative/modeling fields.