Professor and Chief; Director, Institute of Infection, Inflammation, and Immunity in Children (i4Kids)
Univ of Pittsburgh/ UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh
John V. Williams, MD, is Professor of Pediatrics, Microbiology & Molecular Genetics; Henry L. Hillman Professor of Pediatric Immunology; Chief of Infectious Diseases; and Director, Institute for Infection, Inflammation, and Immunity in Children (i4Kids). The major focus of Dr. Williams' research is the immunity and pathogenesis of human metapneumovirus (HMPV). His team described the epidemiology of HMPV, a leading cause of lower respiratory infection, and discovered that HMPV uses integrins as receptors to enter cells through endocytosis. His group discovered that HMPV and other respiratory viruses induce lung CD8+ T cell impairment via PD-1 signaling. Dr. Williams also leads CDC-funded surveillance studies of acute respiratory and gastrointestinal infections in children based at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
He completed his undergraduate education at Northern Virginia Community College and the University of Virginia and attended medical school at the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University. He trained in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh/University of Pittsburgh and completed fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
He has authored or co-authored >150 original articles, reviews, and chapters about his research, which has been supported by grants from the NIH and the CDC. Dr. Williams has been an active mentor of graduate students and fellows, and is a standing member of the NIH/NIAID MID-B Study Section. He has been recognized for his teaching and research accomplishments with the Society for Pediatric Research E. Mead Johnson Award, the Mary Ann and John Hash Award for Outstanding Teaching of Graduate Students in Microbiology and Immunology, the Caroline B. Hall Award for Translational Research from the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, and the Norman Siegel Award from the American Pediatric Society.
Disclosure: GlaxoSmithKline: Advisor or Review Panel member; IDConnect: Advisor or Review Panel member; Quidel: Advisor or Review Panel member
Saturday, October 24, 2020
10:00am – 11:15am EDT