Chief's Message

The Division of Infectious Diseases at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine is committed to tackling domestic and international infectious diseases and their complications and developing new and more effective ways to cure and prevent them. This commitment is displayed through our unwavering dedication to research, clinical care, and education. 

Funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among other agencies and sponsors, the division has long been a leader in several research domains. We host an array of transformative HIV-related basic, translational, clinical, and epidemiological investigations through the Third Coast Center for AIDS Research, the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study, the Advancing Clinical Therapeutics Globally research consortium, and the HIV Outpatient Study.  Through the applications of cutting-edge technology, computational tools, and clinical science methods, our exceptional scientists work to unravel the complex biology and epidemiology of influenza, Mpox, SARS-CoV-2 and dengue, among other infectious pathogens. These efforts are inspired by a quest for clinical and teaching excellence, which is continually renewed by our commitment to the best patient outcomes across the spectrum of infectious diseases. The efforts related to emerging pathogens and countermeasures coalesce 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 in the emerging field of HIV-to-HIV organ transplantation and infectious diarrhea in immune compromised hosts. Strong collaborative research and applications of advanced technologies power ongoing research into the mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance and stewardship and into the epidemiology of hospital-acquired infections. We collaborate with key community and public health partners to maximize the public health impact of these activities. Our work has a global reach, with active research programs in Tanzania, Mali, South Africa and Nigeria, as well as other countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South America.

The 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, a center of clinical excellence for rare and common infectious diseases. We are able to achieve remarkable treatment results, in part, because of the research that informs our expert care. Our goal is to further our understanding of fundamental problems in biology and medicine and apply this understanding to the compassionate, patient-centered care we provide.

We 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.