David Alland, MD MSc DTM & H

Chief of Infectious Diseases, Professor

Research

David Alland obtained a B.A. in Psychology from Columbia University and an M.D. from the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. He performed his Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine at The Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital (Now the New York-Presbyterian Hospital), his Clinical Infectious Disease fellowship at Montefiore Medical Center, and a Research Fellowship at The Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the laboratory of Dr. Barry Bloom. Dr. Alland also spent a year in The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where he obtained an MSc. in Clinical Tropical Medicine and a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. After serving on the Infectious Disease Faculty of Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Dr. Alland moved to New Jersey Medical School, first as a member of the Infectious Disease faculty and then as Chief of the Division of Infectious Disease.

Dr. Alland is a permanent member of the NIH ADDT (AIDS Discovery and Development of Therapeutics) study section, has chaired several ad hoc study sections, and reviewed grants for the WHO, Gates Foundation, and the Wellcome Trust. Dr. Alland is the P.I. of a multi-center $2,500,000 grant from the NIH to study the evolution of drug resistance in M. tuberculosis , a $2,000,000 grant from the NIH to study the evolution and phylogenetics of M. tuberculosis , and a $3,000,000 grant from the NIH to develop novel biodefense diagnostics. He has also been the principal investigator of a phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant awarded to Cepheid Inc. to develop novel methods to process clinical samples for PCR diagnostics. Dr. Alland was a project leader in the development of the Northeast Regional Biodefense Center, a multi-institution NIH grant to coordinate and promote biodefense research, and sits on the Executive Committee of this program.

Dr. Alland has been awarded three patents based on his research: U.S. Patent Number: 6,268,201: iniB, iniA and iniC genes of mycobacteria and methods of use, U.S. Patent Number: 6,458,566: Method of identification of differentially expressed mRNA and U.S. Patent Number: 6,461,817: Non-competitive co-amplification methods. He has a forth patent pending based on recent work at UMDJ. In 2003, Dr. Alland was an invited speaker both the American Society of Microbiology (ASM) and the American Thoracic Society (ATS) general meetings, and a number of other international, national, and regional meetings. He has recently published important articles on M.tuberculosis epidemiology (Murray and Alland. Am. J. Epi . 2002. 155:565-571.), genomics (Fleischmann et al., J. Bacteriol . 202. 184:5479-5490.), evolution (Alland et al., J. Bacteriol . 2003. 85:3392-3399), and diagnostics (El-Hajj et al., J. Clin. Microbiol. 2001. 39: 4131-4137).

Nancy Connell, PhD

Professor

Research

Nancy Connell is a Professor in the Department of Medicine at New Jersey Medical School. A Harvard University Ph.D. in Microbiology, Dr. Connell's major research focus is the interaction between M. tuberculosis and the macrophage. She is Director of the Biosafety Level Three Facility of UMDNJ's Center for the Study of Emerging and Re-emerging Pathogens and chairs the University's Institutional Biosafety Committee. Dr. Connell's involvement in biological weapons control began in 1984, when she was Chair of the Committee on the Military Use of Biological Research, a subcommittee of the Council for Responsible Genetics, based in Cambridge, MA. Nancy is also the Director of the UMDNJ Center for Biodefense, established in 1999, which is the recipient of $ 8.5 million in Congressional Recommendation (2000-2003) for research into detection and diagnosis of BW agents and biodefense preparedness.

Sally Hodder, MD

Executive Vice-chair Department of Medicine

Professor

Dr. Hodder received her BA from the Mount Holyoke College and her MD from Case Western Reserve University. She was a fellow in the Infectious Disease Division at CASE Western/University Hospitals in Cleveland, where she also worked as an attending physician, consultant and Associate Professor until 1999. She then joined Bristol-Myers Squibb Company as a sub team leader in the medical affairs organization during the acquisition of DuPont Pharma. She was later appointed Senior Director of U.S. Virology Scientific Operations and a few months later was promoted to be the Vice-President of the U.S. Virology Medical Affairs. In February 2005 she joined the Infectious Disease Division at New Jersey Medical School. Dr. Hodder has received numerous awards including the President's award from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, she has been a member in different committees such as the National Board of Medical Examiners and the National coalition to eliminate tuberculosis. She has published in many scientific and medical journals. Dr. Hodder is now the Executive Vice-chair of the Department and also the Director of HIV services at the University Hospital.

Padmini Salgame, PhD

Professor

Research

Dr. Padmini Salgame obtained her Ph.D. degree from the University of Bombay, India. Following her graduation, she was awarded a Fellowship from the Wellcome Trust to obtain advanced training in Immunology with Prof. N. A. Mitchison at University College, London. Later she trained in the Immunology of Mycobacterial Diseases with Prof. Barry R. Bloom, at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York. Since the fall of 1994, she has directed an experimental research laboratory involved in the research of tubercular host microbe interaction, and her research work is funded by the National Institutes of Health. From 1994 to 2003 she was Assistant and then Associate Professor at Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Currently Dr. Salgame is a Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and The Center for Emerging Pathogens at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School.

Robert Eng, MD

Professor

Research

Dr. Eng received his B.S. in Chemistry from University of Washington, his M.A. in Chemistry from Harvard University and the M.D. from Albert Einstein College of Medicine (NY). He was an ID fellow at SUNY, UMDNJ and Sloan Kettering. Dr. Eng joined UMDNJ as an assistant professor in 1980. He was the director of the ID division from 1994 to 1999. Currently, he is the Chief of Infectious Disease at VA Medical Center, where he is also the supervisor for Infection Control. Dr. Eng has more than 200 publications in scientific and medical journals. His major research interests are Mechanisms of Antibiotic resistance in Bacteria and the Detection of Metabolites as a means of Diagnosis. Dr. Eng has thirteen research projects sponsored by the State of NJ, the VA and different pharmaceutical companies.

Rajendra Kapila, MD

Professor

Dr. Kapila received his Pre-Medical degree from St. Xaviers College Calcutta, W. Bengal, India and the Medical Degree from the University of Delhi, India. After completion of his residency in Irwin Hospital India, he moved to the US where he was an intern, resident & fellow at Martland Hospital in Newark, NJ. He was also Assistant Chief of Medicine for the US Army in Okinawa Japan, during the Vietnam conflict. Dr. Kapila received his UMDNJ University Appointment in 1973 and the University Hospital Appointment in 1976. He is a founding member of the New Jersey Infectious Disease Society, and has also received the Excellence in Teaching Award from UMDNJ. Dr. Kapila is an attending physician and the Chair of the Infection Control Committee.

Lisa Dever, MD

Vice-chair Department of Medicine

Director Fellowship Program

Associate Professor

Lisa L. Dever, MD is an attending physician and Associate Professor of Medicine at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School in Newark. She received her medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and completed residency and chief residency there. Dr. Dever completed two fellowships, one in Infectious Diseases at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and the other in Microbiology at the Rockefeller University in New York City. Dr. Dever has authored or co-authored more than 40 journal articles, text chapters, and monographs focusing on the study, diagnosis, and treatment of infectious diseases. She is a member of the editorial board of Microbial Drug Resistance and the VA HIV Technical Advisory Group. She has participated in numerous clinical trials of new agents for the treatment of infectious diseases. Her major clinical and research interests include antimicrobial resistance, pathogenesis and treatment of pneumonia, and the management of HIV and chronic hepatitis C infections. Dr. Dever has been appointed Director of the Fellowship Program.

Steven Sperber, MD

Chief, Infectious Diseases, HUMC

Associate Professor

Research

Dr. Sperber received his MD from the New York University School of Medicine. He was an intern and resident at the Stony Brook University Hospital SUNY, NY, and an ID fellow at University of Virginia. Dr. Sperber was a physician investigator at the AIDS clinical trials unit and Co-Director of the Antiviral section at the AIDS research lab in the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He was appointed director of the Medical Resident Research Program at Hackensack University Medical Center in 1992 and is currently the coordinator of the Internal Medicine clerkship and the Associate Director of the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program at Hackensack University Medical Center, NJMS-UMDNJ. Dr. Sperber has many publications in scientific & medical journals. Dr. Sperber has worked intensively with respiratory virus infections and continues to have an interest in the management of rhinovirus and influenza infections.

Shobha Swaminathan, MD

Assistant Professor

Dr. Swaminathan received her undergraduate degree in sciences from Shivaji Science College and her M.D. from the Government Medical College in Nagpur, India. She was a resident at Englewood Hospital & Medical Center. During her residency she received numerous awards including best medical intern and resident, award for professionalism. She was also the Chief Resident at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center. She completed her fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the combined program of Montefiore Medical Center/ Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY. Her initial research projects included studying the utility of two-step tuberculin skin testing in drug users and outcome of antiretroviral therapy in protease inhibitor containing regimens. Dr. Swaminathan is currently an attending physician and works closely with the fellows. Her areas of interest include HIV and coinfection with hepatitis viruses. She is currently involved in a research project studying the impact of hepatitis c virus coinfection on the outcome of antiretroviral therapy. She is also involved in conducting clinical trials and she is also responsible for the antibiotic monitoring program at University Hospital, Newark.

Tom Chiang, MD

Assistant Professor

Dr. Chiang completed his undergraduate degree at Boston University and his medical degree at Ross University School of Medicine. His internal medicine residency was done at North Shore University Hospital in NY. He then went on to complete his Infectious Disease fellowship at New York Hospital of Queens by July 2005. His research during his fellowship was focused on the multi-drug resistant strains of bacteria and their mechanisms for resistance. He is currently an attending physician at the VA Medical Center and where he will continue his clinical and laboratory research.

Linas Riauba, MD

Assistant Professor

Dr. Riauba received his MD from the Vilnius State University in Lithuania. He joined the University Hospital in 1993 as a senior technical assistant in the ID division. In 1994, Dr. Riauba was a Internal Medicine resident and in 1997 he started his training as an Infectious Diseases fellow in New Jersey Medical School. After graduation, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine in the division and currently he is one of the physicians of the H-Blue inpatient service at University Hospital.

Alexander Stoler, MD

Assistant Professor

Dr. Stoler received his medical degree from Moscow Medical and Dental School, Russia. He completed residency in Internal Medicine and then ID Fellowship at UMDNJ. Since 1999 he works as an attending physician in Inf.Dis/HIV clinic. He is also taking care of patients at Broadway House for Continuing Care. His major field of interest is HIV/hepC coinfection.

Debra Chew, MD

Clinical Assistant Professor

Dr. Chew graduated from Brown University in 1984, and earned her medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1989. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, in 1992, and her Infectious Diseases fellowship at Albert Einstein/Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, New York in 1995. Dr. Chew was selected for the position of Epidemic Intelligence Service officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and served from 1995-1997. She served as a medical specialist for the New York City Department of Health from 1997-1999. Dr. Chew has been an Infectious Disease physician specialist at UMDNJ University Hospital since 1999, and is one of the attending Infectious Disease physicians in the Infectious Disease Clinic. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at UMDNJ. Her primary research interests are in HIV and AIDS, and she is a principal investigator and co-investigator in several ongoing HIV clinical trials and studies.

His laboratory studies how the pathogen adapts to life within the host and, in turn, how the host responds to the infection. Currently, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Plasmodium falciparum, the causative agents of tuberculosis and malaria, respectively, are of chief interest.  The Freundlich lab seeks to leverage chemical techniques to study the essential pathogen biology and the host immune response to identify and validate biological targets and to seed the development of novel therapeutics.

Roberto Colangeli, PhD

Assistant Professor

Dr. Colangeli received his PhD from La Sapienza University in Rome, Italy. He worked in the Microbiology Department at the Italian National Institute of Health (instituto Superiore di Sanita). After moving to NYC, he joined the Public Health Research Institute as a Post-Doctoral research fellow working in Immunology of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. Dr. Colangeli was also a Post-Doctoral research fellow at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He joined UMDNJ in 2002 as a research associate and now he is an Assistant Professor working with Genetics of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. He is also a consultant on Bacterial Infections in a project from the European Union.

Nancy Reilly, RN, MS

Nancy is the Research Program Manager for the Division of infectious Diseases. She received her B.S. in Nursing from Marquette University, and her M.S. in Community Health Education from Southern Connecticut State University. She has worked in HIV clinical research since 1991, prmarily in NIH-Division of AIDS funded work. She was a research coordinator with the Yale University School of Medicine AIDS Clinical Trial Units, and more recently, served as a nurse manager for the North Jersey Community Research Initiative Unit of the Community Programs for Clinical Research on AIDS. She joined UMDNJ in 2001.

Jerrold Ellner, MD

Adjunct Professor

Dr. Ellner received the A.B. degree from Cornell University and the M.D. degree from Johns Hopkins University. He completed residency in medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital where he served as Assistant Chief of Service (Chief Medical Resident). Dr. Ellner received post-doctoral training in Infectious Diseases and Immunology at the Laboratory of Clinical Investigation, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health. He joined the faculty at Case Western Reserve University as Assistant Professor in 1976 and was promoted to Professor of Medicine and of Pathology in 1983. He served as Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at University Hospitals of Cleveland 1979-1996. Dr. Ellner also was Vice-Chair, Executive Vice Chair and Acting Chair of the Department of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University. He was Director of the Tuberculosis Research Unit at Case Western Reserve University 1994-9. Dr. Ellner was recruited to UMD-New Jersey Medical School in 1999 as Emerging Pathogens Endowed Professor of Medicine and Director of the Ruy V. Lourenço Center for the Study of Emerging and Re-Emerging Pathogens . He was appointed as the first University Professor of UMDNJ and served as Vice-Chair for Research of the Department of Medicine, and then as Interim Chair before becoming Chair of Medicine June, 2002. In 2009, Dr. Ellner accepted the position of Professor of Medicine & Chief, Section of Infectious Diseases at Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center.

Dr. Ellner is internationally recognized for his research on tuberculosis and its interactions with HIV infection. He has published over 200 original articles in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. He was the principal architect of the Uganda-Case Western Reserve University Research Collaboration, which has been extended to UMDNJ and is Co-Director and Founding Member of the Academic Alliance for AIDS Care and Prevention in Africa. Dr. Ellner currently directs a Wellcome Trust Infectious Diseases initiative in Kampala Uganda on the Management of Multi-Drug Resistant TB in resource poor settings. He is Principal Investigator of an NIH-funded program on the Immune Response to TB that is conducted in Mexico City and recently was awarded an International Collaboration in Infectious Diseases Research (ICIDR)award by NIH to support research on TB transmission and pathogenesis in Vitoria Brazil.

Dr. Ellner's accomplishments have been recognized by his election to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He received the Squibb Award from the Infectious Diseases Society of America in 1990. Dr. Ellner served as Chair of the Tuberculosis Panel of the U.S.-Japan, Cooperative Medical Sciences Program. He was Member and Chair of Bacteriology and Mycology-1 Study Section of the NIH, and a member of the National Advisory Allergy and Infectious Diseases Council, the Immunology of Mycobacterial Diseases Steering Committee of the World Health Organization and the Public Health Service Advisory Council for Elimination of Tuberculosis. He received the Northeast Ohio Live, Outstanding Achievement in Health/Medicine Award in 1998 and was named Best Doctor in New York, by New York Magazine and Top Doctor in New Jersey by New Jersey Monthly each year since 2001. Dr. Ellner was Co-Editor-in-Chief of "Tuberculosis" formely known as "Tubercle and Lung Disease" and a member of the Scientific Advisory Panel of the Public Health Research Institute. He is a member of an Institute of Medicine Committee on Infectious Diseases complications of the Gulf War and current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and of the Data Monitoring Committeeof the Division of AIDS, NIAID, NIH on Clinical Trials on Therapies for HIV, AFRICA.

Edward Jones, MD, MS

Adjunct Professor

After completing his Baccalaureat in France, Dr. Jones attended medical school in Mexico at La Salle University. Upon finishing medical school in 1991, he worked for two years with the humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF France) during the civil war in Angola and the refugee crisis in the Thai/Cambodian border. Upon his return from MSF, Dr. Jones trained in Internal Medicine and Infectious Disease in Mexico (Instituto Nacional de la Nuticion Salvador Zubiran) and Cleveland (University Hospitals of Cleveland). During his time in Cleveland, he also completed a Master's Degree in Epidemiology & Biostatistics at Case Western Reserve University while working in the Tuberculosis Research Unit on several large epidemiological studies in Uganda. Dr. Jones was recruited to UMDNJ in 2001 and deployed to Uganda where he lived for two years while launching a large collaborative research project on drug-resistant tuberculosis funded by the Wellcome Trust (UK). In 2010, Dr. Jones accepted the position of Associate Professor of Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases at Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center.

Dr. Jones has published several articles and book chapters over the last few years and is actively participating in several research efforts focusing on tuberculosis and HIV disease in the United States, Uganda, Mexico and Brazil. He is the Principal Investigator or co-investigator on numerous research grants from National Institutes of Health, Wellcome Trust, UMDNJ Foundation and pharmaceutical companies. His research interests include tuberculosis, HIV and international health issues. In addition to English, Dr. Jones is fluent in Spanish and French, and enjoys working in multicultural settings. Dr. Jones is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School and Associate Chief for Research at the Division of Infectious Diseases. He also holds honorary appointments at Makarere University Medical School in Uganda and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine-University of London.

Robert Wallis received his B.A. (1978) from Antioch College , and M.D. (1982) from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He completed a Residency in Internal Medicine and postdoctoral Fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University Hospitals of Cleveland , and then became a member of the faculty of the Department of Medicine at CWRU in 1987. In 2000, he moved his laboratory to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, where he directed clinical and research activities of the Division of Infectious Diseases of the New Jersey Medical School . His academic career focused on laboratory-based studies of mycobacterial pathogenesis and immunity, and international clinical trials of tuberculosis diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring, and of the co-pathogenesis of HIV and tuberculosis. In 2004, Dr. Wallis became Medical Director at PPD, Inc., a global contract research organization that provides discovery, development and post-approval services for industry, academia, and government. In 2008, he took his present position with Pfizer, where he is Clinical Group Lead for Anti-Infectives and Clinical Lead for Pfizer's TB oxazolidinone program. Dr. Wallis maintains adjunct faculty appointments at both his former universities, where he continues to be actively involved in laboratory and translational research.

Dr. Wallis has published over 120 scientific papers in journals such as the Lancet Infectious Diseases , Journal of Immunology , the Journal of Infectious Diseases, Blood , The Journal of Clinical Investigation , The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science , and Infection and Immunity , and has authored chapters in textbooks such as Tuberculosis and the Tubercle Bacillus (ASM Press), Tuberculosis Drug Development (Nova Science Publishers), and Tuberculosis: A comprehensive clinical treatise (Elsevier). He serves on Editorial Advisory Boards of several journals, including the Journal of Infectious Diseases , Tuberculosis, and Clinical and Laboratory Immunology. He has served on numerous expert advisory and review panels of the US National Institutes of Health, World Health Organization, Gates Foundation, Ireland Science Foundation, Portugal Ministry of Science, and the Wellcome Trust. Dr. Wallis previously served as Chair of Division U (Mycobacteriology) of the American Society for Microbiology, and is a Fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America.