Leadership & Administration

Miriam Laufer, MD
Associate Director for Malaria Research;
Interim Director of the Center for Vaccine Development & Global Health (CVD)

Dr. Laufer is Professor of Pediatrics and a pediatric infectious diseases specialist with over 15 years of experience in conducting epidemiological and translational research with a focus of translating scientific discovery into clinically relevant strategies to improve the health of people living in malaria-endemic countries. Much of her work has focused on maternal immunization as well as drug-resistance. Dr. Laufer leads a team of dynamic and world-renowned researchers who work towards accelerating malaria elimination.

Eileen Barry, PhD
Director of Education

Dr. Barry is Professor of Medicine in the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health. She is a molecular microbiologist with over 20 years of experience identifying mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis using novel model systems and developing vaccines. Her focus has been on the enteric pathogens Shigella and ETEC, which are responsible for significant global diarrheal disease burden. She is committed to training the next generation of biomedical scientists and leads a team that includes graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

James D. Campbell, MD, MS
Interim Division Head of Pediatric Infectious Disease and Tropical Pediatrics

Dr. Campbell has been a faculty member at the University of Maryland School of Medicine since 2001. From 2007 to 2012, he lived and worked in Uganda for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), mainly in the field of HIV prevention and care. He is one of two Senior Vice Chairs of the Institutional Review Board and Director of the University of Maryland Baltimore Clinical Research Training and Mentoring Program. He is a member of the Committee on Infectious Diseases (COID or “Red Book Committee”) for the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Wilbur H. Chen, MD, MS
Interim Chief for the Geographic Medicine Division

Dr. Chen is an adult infectious disease physician-scientist with a specific interest in developing vaccines. He is Chief of the Adult Clinical Studies section within the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health and Director of the UMB Travel Medicine Practice. His research is concentrated on two broad areas of global health. First, he is devoted to developing vaccines for enteric pathogens, infectious diseases chiefly of resource poor and economically disadvantaged countries and populations. Second, he is interested in improved vaccines for the elderly, a rapidly growing segment of the global population which is susceptible to many infections and a special population that generally responds poorly to vaccination.

Karen Kotloff, MD
Associate Director for Clinical Research

Dr. Kotloff is Professor of Pediatrics and a pediatric infectious disease specialist. She has served as Principal Investigator on some of the largest projects related to child health and mortality prevention. Her research covers respiratory diseases such as pneumonia as well as research into enteric diseases such as rotavirus, Shigella, cholera and typhoid. Dr. Kotloff’s research has been instrumental in helping to set prevention policy including a strong footing for vaccine development and distribution in low-resource global settings.

Marcelo Sztein, MD
Associate Director for Basic and Translational Research

Dr. Sztein is Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Director for Immunologic Studies. He established the Immunology Group to centralize and expand interdisciplinary efforts in translational research, a “bench to bedside” program with the ultimate goal of accelerating vaccine development and usage. He is an accomplished investigator in the area of immunology of infectious diseases and cytokine immunobiology. Dr. Sztein is a recognized international authority in the study of the human host systemic and mucosal immune responses to vaccination (with or without adjuvants) and the identification of immunological mechanisms of protection from infection in human and animal models, particularly in the field of infectious enteric diseases.  Projects encompass the study of systemic and gastrointestinal mucosal immune responses in volunteers participating in challenge studies and in vaccine trials of genetically engineered vaccine strains such as attenuated Salmonella Typhi and Shigella (alone or as a carrier of foreign genes), Vibrio cholerae,  Enteroaggregative E. coli, Plasmodium falciparum, Salmonella Paratyphi A and B, non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS), invasive NTS, Dengue virus, Francisella tularensis, influenza, hepatitis and Ebola.

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