John Williams, MD
Position title: Professor, Department Chair
Address:
Division of Infectious Diseases
Education
BS, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia
MD, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Richmond, Virginia
Residency, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Fellowship in Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center/ Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, Nashville, Tennessee
Professional Activities
Dr. John Williams is a tenured professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and the John E. Jr. and Louise A. Gonce Chair in Pediatrics. Williams is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Virology and the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society. He is an active mentor of graduate and medical students, residents, and fellows, and is a standing member of the NIH/NIAID MID-B Study Section. He has been recognized for his teaching and research accomplishments with the Society for Pediatric Research E. Mead Johnson Award, the Mary Ann and John Hash Award for Outstanding Teaching of Graduate Students in Microbiology and Immunology, the Caroline B. Hall Award for Translational Research from the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, and the Norman J. Siegel New Member Outstanding Science Award from the American Pediatric Society.
Clinical Interests
Williams is board-certified in Pediatric Infectious Diseases by the American Board of Pediatrics. He is an international authority on the epidemiology, immunity, and pathogenesis of respiratory viruses, which are the leading cause of death in children less than 5 years old worldwide and are a major cause of disease and death in immunocompromised patients such as transplant recipients.
Research Activities
The major focus of the J. Williams Research Group is the entry, immunity, and pathogenesis of human metapneumovirus (HMPV), a pneumovirus discovered in 2001 that is a leading cause of acute lower respiratory tract illness in infants and children worldwide. The overarching theme of the team’s research on HMPV is to elucidate mechanisms of viral pathogenesis, understand the contribution of host immune responses to pathogenesis, and guide the development of interventions against this important human pathogen. The group conducts collaborative studies of the epidemiology of HMPV and other respiratory viruses with investigators at US and international sites. Williams has authored or co-authored more than 200 original articles about his research, which has been supported by the NIH and CDC.