Professor of Medicine
Duke University
John R. Perfect, M.D., FIDSA
John R. Perfect MD is James B. Duke Professor of Medicine and Chief of Infectious Diseases at Duke University Medical Center. He is a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Microbiology and a member of the Association of American Physicians. His academic work centers around the basic, translational and clinical aspects of Medical Mycology in which his efforts have been acknowledged with the Lucille Georg Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society of Human and Animal Mycology, the Rhoda Benham Award from the Mycology Society of Americas, and the M.L. Littman Award from the Medical Mycology Society of New York.
Dr. Perfect’s research includes basic studies into the molecular pathogenesis of cryptococcosis and this work is supported by the National Institutes of Health. He is also the principal investigator on a program project grant that is entitled “Transdisciplinary Program to Identify Novel Antifungal Inhibitors”. Along with this basic science focus, he is also involved in several other layers of antifungal development at the translational and clinical levels. He is a long- time member of the Mycoses Study Group and provides advisory consultations for a series of pharmaceutical companies in antifungal drug development. He also directs and designs clinical trials of fungal infections and for antifungal therapy. He is the lead author of the 2010 IDSA Cryptococcal Treatment Guidelines.
Dr. Perfect’s education and clinical services remain vibrant. From 1999 when he received the Duke University Scholar/Teacher Award of that year to several educator and mentoring awards locally in the last few years, his efforts for education and mentoring are a primary focus of his career. He extensively lectures nationally and internationally on Medical Mycology in an attempt to teach the “world of learners”
Dr. Perfect is especially proud that he continues to round several months a year on the Infectious Diseases and General Medicine services. This allows him to bridge the “bench to bedside environment”. His greatest gifts have been the direct care of patients and to share these experiences with fellows, residents, interns, and medical students provide him the complementary environment to his search for learning, caring and giving.
Disclosure: amplyx (Individual(s) Involved: Self): Grant/Research Support; astellas (Individual(s) Involved: Self): Grant/Research Support