Mentorship Team
University of Pittsburgh
Lee H. Harrison, MD
Dr. Harrison is the Co-Program Director of SAPPHGenE. He is also a Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology, and Infectious Diseases & Microbiology at Pitt, and an Adjunct Professor of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Additionally, he is the Principal Investigator of the Microbial Genomic Epidemiology Laboratory (MiGEL), whose mission is to provide training and conduct research in bacterial genomic epidemiology and to support the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) infection prevention program. He is board certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases, and received three years of training in infectious diseases epidemiology and molecular epidemiology as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer and medical epidemiologist at CDC.
Dr. Harrison has a successful track record of CDC and NIH funding. He established and is the principal investigator of the CDC-funded Maryland Active Bacterial Core surveillance (ABCs)/EIP site. ABCs conducts active, laboratory- and population-based public health surveillance for drug-resistant and vaccine-preventable invasive bacterial diseases (N. meningitidis, H. influenzae, group A and group B Streptococcus, S. pneumoniae, and methicillin-resistant S. aureus) and applied research on these organisms and other emerging infectious diseases. As co-chair of the EIP microbial genomics working group, Dr. Harrison has been taking a leadership role within the EIP to accelerate the use of microbial genomics and metagenomics.
In addition, Dr. Harrison has experience in both mentoring in epidemiology and genomic epidemiology of bacterial pathogens, and mentoring to investigators from LMICs and in the context of Fogarty international training grants. Previous/current training sites include Brazil, Mozambique, and South Africa.
Dr. Harrison and Dr. von Gottberg are responsible for the overall management of SAPPHGenE. In addition to providing program leadership, they will mentor a substantial number of trainees.
Cornelius J. Clancy, MD
Dr. Clancy is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Mycology Research Unit and XDR (extremely drug-resistant) Pathogen Lab, as well as Chief of Infectious Diseases at the Pittsburgh Veteran Affairs (VA) Hospital. His laboratory is funded by the VA and NIH to study drug responses of Candida albicans and genetics of carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae. He is a mentor to recipients of an NIH K08, a Pitt KL2, and a VA Career Pilot Project Funding award.
Dr. Clancy will provide training in translational research on drug-resistant Candida infection.
Vaughn S. Cooper, PhD
Dr. Cooper is an Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. His research focuses on microbial evolution, population biology, and mechanisms of pathogen adaptation. He has experience in WGS and analysis of multiple bacterial pathogens, including S. pneumoniae and hospital-associated pathogens, both of which are of particular relevance to this training program. Dr. Cooper also has extensive mentoring experience, including post-doctoral fellows and PhD students, as well as undergraduate honors students. He has ongoing collaborations with other SAPPHGenE mentors, namely Dr. Harrison, Dr. Doi, and Dr. Morris.
Dr. Cooper will provide mentorship to trainees in the area of WGS analysis and evolution of bacterial pathogens.
Daria N. Van Tyne, PhD
Alison M. Morris, MD, MS
Dr. Morris is a Professor of Medicine in Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, Clinical and Translational Research (SOM), and Immunology (SOM). The focus of her research is the microbiome of the lung. She is Co-Director of the Pitt Center for Microbiome and Medicine (CMM). In that role, she will make CMM resources, including extensive metagenomic bioinformatics expertise, available to our trainees.
She will oversee training in the CMM on the application of metagenomics to address public health questions. She will also serve as a member of our Training Advisory Committee.
Yohei Doi, MD, PhD
Dr. Doi is the Director of the Center for Innovative Antimicrobial Therapy, and an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases. His primary research is in mechanisms of resistance in Gram-negative bacilli, especially extended-spectrum betalactamases and carbapenemases. He is a member of the Gram-Negative Subcommittee of the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group, which is funded by NIH. Dr. Doi has a variety of ongoing research projects that use WGS to elucidate how these organisms acquire resistance to various classes of antimicrobials.
He will provide training in genomic epidemiology and mechanisms of resistance of community- and hospital-acquired Gram-negative bacteria.
Mark S. Roberts, MD, MPP
Dr. Roberts is a Professor and Chair of Health Policy and Management (HPM) and the Director of the Public Health Dynamics Laboratory (PHDL) in the Graduate School of Public Health. He also holds secondary appointments as a Professor in Medicine, Industrial Engineering, and Clinical and Translational Science. PHDL has provided training in modeling to multiple investigators from LMIC’s, including 5 international fellows and PhD students from South Africa. Dr. Roberts has expertise in cost effectiveness, mathematical optimization and simulation. He uses decision analysis to examine clinical, costs, policy and allocation questions in vaccination and other strategies. He has served as a primary or secondary mentor of over 30 K-type training awards, and was the director of degree-granting programs for the Institute for Clinical Research Education for ten years. He collaborates with Dr. Harrison in mentoring an HPM doctoral student on economic and clinic impact models for Dr. Harrison’s NIH R01 project, “Enhanced Detection System for Hospital Associated Transmission” (EDS-HAT.)
Dr. Roberts will provide mentoring for candidates interested in infectious diseases modeling and simulation.
Barbara Methé, PhD
Dr. Methé will provide training in the area of microbiome research and host-microbiome interactions and their relationship to the proposed study goals.