Infectious Diseases Research Day
ID Research Days are held annually. Organized by the Division of Infectious Diseases & International Health and sponsored by the Infectious Diseases Training Program, this annual event provides an opportunity for graduate students and research and clinical fellows in the UVA ID community to share their research through a poster session and oral presentations and receive feedback from faculty and peers.
ID Research Day 2026 will be held on March 24th, 2026.
Keynote Speaker: Ken Bradley, PhD 
Global Head of Infectious Disease Discovery, Pharma Research & Early Development (pRED) Division
Roche Innovative Center Basel (Switzerland)
General Instructions
- Abstracts will be accepted via the online submission form only.
- Oral presentations will be selected on a competitive basis, as they will be limited to five 15-minute talks. All other abstracts will be presented as posters. A panel of judges will select the top poster presentations, which will be announced at the conclusion of Research Day.
Abstract Requirements:
- Please submit the abstract as a Word document, using Arial 11 pt. font.
- Include your name as part of the file name (i.e., Johnson-Mary-Abstract.doc).
- At the top of the document, bold the title and list the names of the authors, with the presenting author’s name underlined, i.e.:The effects of marigolds on men on the moon. Jones J, Smith RF, Parker G.
- The abstract should not exceed one page or approximately 350 words.
- Upload the file using the online submission form, and clicking the “Attach Abstract” button.
- Check the appropriate box on the submission form to indicate if the presenting author is a graduate student, resident, clinical fellow, research fellow, or other.
If you have problems with the submission process, contact Samantha Alleman Moreau.
Past Research Days
No Keynote Speaker
2024 ID and Global Biothreats Research Day – February 12, 2024
Keynote Speaker: David Aronoff, MD
John B. Hickam Professor of Medicine
Chair, Department of Medicine
Indiana University School of Medicine
2023 ID and Global Biothreats Research Day – January 9th, 2023
Keynote Speaker: Rita Tamayo, PhD
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
University of North Carolina – School of Medicine
Monday, February 21st, 2022
Keynote speaker: Ana Fernandez-Sesma, PhD
“Modulation of Human Immune responses by RNA Viruses”
Principal Investigator at Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai.
Dr. Fernandez-Sesma is currently a professor with tenure in the Department of Microbiology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) in New York, NY, USA. She is interested in the modulation of innate immunity by viruses of human health interests, such as dengue (DENV), influenza (IAV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and Zika (ZIKV) and in the past year also SARS-CoV-2. Her group uses mainly primary human systems, such as dendritic cells (DCs) and macrophages as well as primary lung epithelial cells and human tonsils for these studies combining molecular and immunological techniques. Their main goal is to understand the mechanisms of immune evasion used by these viruses to establish infection in humans. She currently participates in several multi-investigator projects on DENV and IAV that use OMICS technologies to study immune responses to infection. She also participated in several study sections for the National Institutes of Health (NIH/NIAD) and is currently a member of the Scientific Council of the Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (DMID) at NIH/NIAID. Dr. Fernandez-Sesma is also the Chair of the NIAID Human Immunology Project Consortium (HIPC) Steering Committee. Dr. Fernandez-Sesma is also very dedicated to graduate education and mentoring. She co-directed the Microbiology Main Training Area of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at ISMMS from 2010 to 2020. She has co-authored numerous publications in Virology and Immunology journals and is on the editorial board of Journal of Virology, mSphere, and PLoS Pathogens. In 2021 she was Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM) and was also awarded the Jacobi Medallion from ISMMS.
ID & Global Biothreats Research Day Schedule
“SeXX Affects Immunity and Outcomes of Respiratory Viral Infections”
Keynote speaker: Sabra Klein, PhD
Professor, Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
Co-Director, Johns Hopkins Center for Women’s Health, Sex, and Gender Research
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Baltimore, MD 21205
Dr. Klein is a Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is an expert on sex and gender differences in immune responses and susceptibility to infection and currently has over 130 peer-reviewed publications, authored several book chapters, and edited two books on the broad topics of sex differences in response to infection and treatments for infectious diseases. During the 2009 influenza pandemic, she was commissioned by the WHO to evaluate and publish a report on the impact of sex, gender, and pregnancy on the outcome of influenza virus infection. During the current COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Klein has written commentaries for several journals and been interviewed by several major news media outlets about male-biased disease outcomes. She is immediate past President of the Organization for the Study of Sex Differences, PI of the Johns Hopkins Specialized Center for Research Excellence (SCORE) in sex and age differences in immunity to influenza, MPI of the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Serology Center of Excellence, co-chair of the advisory board of the Johns Hopkins Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health, member of the Advisory Committee on Research on Women’s Health at NIH, and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Women’s Health, Sex, and Gender Research.
Monday, February 24th, 2020
Keynote speaker: Liise-anne Pirofski, M.D.
“A New Paradigm for Studying and Treating Infectious Diseases: Damage Control”
Liise-anne Pirofski, M.D. Professor, Microbiology & Immunology, Selma and Dr. Jacquest Mitrani Chair in Biomedical Research, Chief, Infectious Diseases, Dept. of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY
Pinn Hall, 10:00am – 5:00 pm
Monday, February 18th, 2019
Keynote speaker: Jeanne Marrazzo, M.D.
“The global epidemic of sexually transmitted infection in women: an interdisciplinary approach to a neglected problem”
Monday, March 19th, 2018
Keynote speaker: Victor Nizet, M.D.
“Collaborating with Innate Immunity to combat Antibioitic-Resistant Superbugs”
Speaker Joanne Engel (left) with grad student Jaqueline Stevens. See the complete slideshow here.
Monday, March 13, 2017
Keynote speaker: Joanne Engel, MD, PhD
Intracellular Pathogens As Master Cell Biologists:
Understanding How Chlamydia Co-Opts Retromer-Dependent Trafficking To Survive Intracellularly
Joanne Engel, MD, PhD, is chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and professor of medicine in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at U.C. San Francisco. More
Pinn Hall Conference Center Auditorium, 3:00 – 4:00 pm
Read about ID & Biodefense Research Day 2017 and see a slide show
Denise Monack, PhD
Monday, April 18, 2016
Keynote speaker:
Denise M. Monack, PhD
“Mechanisms of Persistent Salmonella Infection and Transmission”
Denise Monack is associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University. More>>
Jordan Hall Conference Center Auditorium, 3:00 – 4:00 pm
Schedule
TimeEventLocation
10:00 – 11:30 amCareer ForumOld Jordan Hall, Rm. 1-17
11:45 – 12:15 pmLunchJordan Hall Conference Ctr., 2ABC
12:15 – 1:30 pmPoster PresentationsJHCC – 2ABC
1:30 – 2:45 pmOral PresentationsJHCC Auditorium
2:45 – 3:00 pmBreakLobby
3:00 – 4:00 pmKeynote Speaker
Denise Monack, PhD
Stanford UniversityJHCC Auditorium
4:00 – 4:15 pmPresentation of Awards –
William A. Petri, Jr., MD, PhDJHCC Auditorium
Denise Monack, PhD
Stanford University
William A. Petri, Jr., MD, PhD