Division of Infectious Disease

Department of Medicine

The University of Vermont received $181.7 million in research funding during the 2020 fiscal year - the largest in UVM history by a wide margin. The Larner College of Medicine had the largest number of grants.

(JULY 29, 2020) Comments from Chair and Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Beth Kirkpatrick, M.D., were featured in a July 29 article, titled "One Man's Quest to Infect People With Covid-19 for Science," in Elemental, a new Medium publication for science-backed health and wellness coverage.

(JULY 10-20, 2020) Significant national and international media coverage was generated in response to the publication of a Pediatrics Commentary, titled “COVID-19 Transmission and Children: The Child Is Not to Blame,” authored by Assistant Professor of Pediatrics Benjamin Lee, M.D., and Professor of Pediatrics and Director of Pediatric Infectious Diseases William Raszka, M.D.

A commentary published in the journal Pediatrics by Benjamin Lee, M.D. and William V. Raszka, Jr., M.D., concludes that children infrequently transmit COVID-19 to each other or to adults and that many schools, provided they follow appropriate social distancing guidelines and take into account rates of transmission in their community, can and should reopen in the fall.

(JUNE 19 & 24, 2020) Beth Kirkpatrick, M.D., chair of microbiology and molecular genetics and director of the Vaccine Testing Center, was quoted in two ABCNews.com stories - one on a potential COVID-19 vaccine and the other on the durability of COVID-19 antibodies.

University of Vermont scientists, physicians, and students gathered at the Larner College of Medicine February 6 for the first-ever on-campus “virus slam” hosted by the Translational Global Infectious Diseases Research Center. At the event, some twenty experts, from five UVM colleges and institutes, gave five-minute mini-talks that ranged from explaining the biochemistry of the virus’ interaction with the human immune system to interpreting the latest data from the World Health Organization.

The Larner College of Medicine's fourth annual "Celebrating Excellence in Research" series featured two days of presentations and recognition designed to highlight research performed by junior faculty, senior faculty, postdoctoral trainees, and graduate students at the College.

Investigators in UVM's Vaccine Testing Center and Center for Translational Global Infectious Disease Research (TGIR) have uncovered details of the human immune response to infection with dengue - a close "cousin" of the Zika virus - which 40 percent of the global population is at risk for contracting. Their study findings were reported recently in the Lancet’s open-access journal EBioMedicine.

Leaders at the University of Vermont and Larner College of Medicine announced $12.3 million in funding for a new Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) called the “Translational Global Infectious Disease Research Center” (TGIR) that will join together two traditionally distinct groups of scientists to develop innovative approaches to prevent and control infectious disease.

Vaccinations have begun in a first-in-human trial of an experimental live, attenuated Zika virus vaccine developed by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. The trial will enroll a total of 28 healthy, non-pregnant adults ages 18 to 50 at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Immunization Research in Baltimore, Md., and at the Vaccine Testing Center at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont in Burlington.

Beth Kirkpatrick, M.D., has been appointed as chair of the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Vermont, effective March 1, 2018.

Researchers Sean Diehl, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine and a Vaccine Testing Center immunologist, and Sam Scarpino, Ph.D., assistant professor of mathematics and statistics, have been awarded the inaugural University of Vermont Biomedical Engineering Program Pilot Research Program grant for their project, “Integrating omics and clinical data to study dengue infection.”

Acute respiratory disease (ARD) due to infection with adenovirus is a major cause of morbidity at military training centers. In addition to ARD, adenovirus infection can cause sore throat, pneumonia, conjunctivitis, and urinary infections.

According to an October 11 "Viewpoint" article in theJournal of the American Medical Association, "nearly 1700 cases of travel-associated Zika infection, including 479 in pregnant women, had been reported in the continental United States" as of August 4, 2016.

Cholera outbreaks continue to plague areas like South Sudan, Eastern Uganda, and Kerala, India, but there’s hope for addressing this infectious disease: Last month, the Food and Drug Administration approved the only vaccine for use in the U.S. to protect against cholera infection. The University of Vermont’s Vaccine Testing Center was one of three national sites to test the vaccine – called Vaxchora – for effectiveness.

Researchers at the University of Vermont (UVM) Vaccine Testing Center, along with collaborators at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, have been working since 2008 to develop a dengue vaccine that will protect against all four dengue strains.

Limited treatment options and no vaccines exist to treat or prevent a leading cause of severe diarrhea in infants and young children in the developing world: Cryptosporidium, a single-celled intestinal parasite found in soil, food and water that also causes significant illness and death in immunocompromised individuals.

The University of Vermont Vaccine Testing Center has announced that it will be involved in the clinical trials and research on a vaccine for Zika virus, which was declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization on February 1, 2016.

University of Vermont researcher Benjamin Lee, M.D., is studying whether a higher dose will help make the rotavirus vaccine more effective in developing countries, where the disease causes more than 200,000 children’s deaths each year due to related dehydration.

A recent announcement that the UVM Vaccine Testing Center will be involved in the clinical trials and research on a vaccine for Zika virus, which was declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization on February 1, 2016, attracted wide local and regional media coverage. Read more from ABC 22/Fox 44 News, WCAX-TV CBS 3,WPTZ-TV NBC 5, Vermont Business Magazine, St. Albans Messenger, Times-Argus, WCAX-TV CBS 3 HealthWatch, U.S. News Hub, VT Digger, Killington Mountain Times, Burlington Sun Times, Vermont NEA, Vermont Public Radio Here and Now, Rome Sentinel, Rutland Herald, The Waltonian, Press Telegraph (no longer available), University Echo