Fellowship Details & Requirements
The Transplant and Oncology Infectious Diseases fellowship began in January 2019 and originated from the need to provide advanced fellowship training in infectious diseases, with an emphasis on cancer, immunocompromised and transplant patients.
MD Anderson has one of the largest facilities in the world for stem cell transplantations. Fellows are well trained on complications from chemotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted therapy, adoptive cell therapy (virus specific T cells, CAR-T cells, CAR-NK cells, Bispecific T cell engager therapy, mesenchymal stem cells for GVHD, e.g.), hematopoietic stem cell and solid organ transplantation.
The goal of the transplant and oncology infectious diseases physician is to support the oncology patient during cancer therapy to achieve maximal treatment response with the least possible complications. The Infectious Diseases Department at MD Anderson has 19 faculty members, 15 advanced practice providers and a team of clinical pharmacy specialists that support and provide care to patients in five different Infectious Diseases consult teams. Educational experiences are offered in both inpatient and outpatient settings.
Eligibility, Prerequisites & Application Process
Our GME Office has preliminary eligibility requirements that all prospective trainees must meet before applying for a training program at our institution. In addition to these criteria, this program requires all applicants to meet the following criteria:
- Completion of a U.S. or Canada, ACGME accredited Infectious Diseases fellowship program in good standing.
- Personal Statement (goals and reason for pursuing a Transplant and Oncology infectious diseases Fellowship)
- In the case of a foreign medical graduate, the candidate must be eligible for an appropriate Visa.
* All documents in a foreign language must be accompanied by certified English translation.
Interested applicants should email their CV, personal statement and 3 letters or recommendation to program coordinator Lauren Sutton at LMSutton1@mdanderson.org and our program director Dr. Pablo Okhuysen at PCOkhuysen@mdanderson.org.
After reviewing the applications, selected candidates will be contacted via email to schedule an interview with our faculty.
Program Goals & Objectives
Our Transplant and Oncology Infectious Diseases Fellowship program has the following goals and objectives:
Goals:
- Equip fellows with the cognitive knowledge, practical experience, interpersonal skills, professional attitudes, and humanistic qualities necessary for practicing infectious diseases in patients with cancer, stem cell or solid organ transplants
Objectives:
Aligned with the six ACGME core competencies:
Patient Care:
- Understand the role of Transplant Infectious Diseases within the context of transplant care, including pre-transplant workup, transplant selection committees, donor evaluation, perioperative care and post-transplant management
- Implement strategies for infection prevention, including antimicrobial prophylaxis indications, timing, and duration
- Gain expertise in immunizations to prevent infectious diseases in highly susceptible patient populations
- Lead the development of highly qualified infectious diseases physicians to improve cancer patient care globally
Medical Knowledge:
- Acquire proficiency and expertise in recognition, diagnosis, and management of common and non-common infectious diseases in immunocompromised, cancer and transplant patients across inpatient, critical care, and outpatient settings
- Understand the current cancer treatment modalities and their implications for increased risk of infectious diseases, including diagnosis, and management
- Recognize and manage infectious and non-infectious complications associated with the use of immunosuppressive drugs, chemotherapeutic agents, targeted cellular therapies, adoptive T- cell therapies, stem cell and solid organ transplants
- Diagnose and treat infections in patients with solid organ transplant patients, including during pre-, post- and during-transplant evaluations. This includes management of post-surgical infections, fungal and viral infections across inpatient, critical care and outpatient settings
- Acquired expertise in the management of multidrug resistant organisms and unusual pathogens
- Describe and perform complete pre-transplantation evaluations
- Understand and manage risks for infection based on epidemiology and examination of potential recipients
- Understand and manage common donor related infectious diseases, including diagnostic and laboratory assessment for potentially transmissible infection
- Understand the reporting requirements of donor transmitted infections
- Describe technical complications and infectious sequelae that may occur from transplantation, understanding anatomy related to transplant procedures
- Manage appropriate use of current and novel antimicrobial agents according to antimicrobial stewardship, use of proper dosing and recognition and management of potential antimicrobial related toxicities
Practice base learning and Improvement:
- Acquire and improve skills on critically analyzing clinical literature and conducting research
- Create an original research project according to fellow and research mentor interests
Interpersonal and communication skills:
- Describe and demonstrate understanding of how the transplant ID physician interacts with the multidisciplinary transplant team
Professionalism:
- Demonstrate skills to interact appropriately with patients and families while respecting patient confidentiality
- Demonstrate cooperative team building with all members of the transplant team including nurses, coordinators, data managers and physicians
Systems-based practice:
- Describe and demonstrate knowledge of fundamental resources including the AST transplant ID guidelines, evidence-based medicine databases, and additional guidelines from other critical sources
Program Structure & Curriculum
The fellowship is a one-year program with an option of an additional year for fellows interested in continuing advanced training and more research experience.
The fellowship is composed of clinical rotations in our Infectious Diseases consulting services of Leukemia, Stem Cell transplant, Lymphoma/Myeloma/targeted cellular therapy, and Solid Organ transplant rotations at our affiliated centers HMH and UTHSC.
Clinical duties include providing care on the inpatient consult service and one weekly half-day outpatient clinic.
Although the consult services also include fellows from our traditional Infectious Diseases services; there is enough patient volume and educational resources to not interfere with the educational experience of the program.
Clinical conferences:
All fellows attend department and shared clinical conferences:
- Tuesday 12:30pm: Monthly conference. Journal club and research meeting sessions.
- Tuesday 12pm: Leukemia case conference. When on service
- Wednesday 8am: ID Clinical Conference
- Wednesday 12pm: Texas Medical Center City Wide Clinical Conference
- Thursday 8am: Stem cell case conference, when on service
- Thursday 1pm: Core curriculum lecture series.
- Friday 8am: MDACC Internal Medicine and Cancer Survivorship Grand Rounds
- Friday 12pm: Texas Medical Center Transplantation Infectious Diseases Clinical Case Conference, monthly meeting.
Outpatient clinic:
One weekly half a day outpatient clinic
Research:
- May be bench driven or clinical as deemed most appropriate by fellow and program director.
- Fellows will have a research mentor during training according to career goals and interests and complete an abstract, manuscript/research paper by the end of the fellowship
- Fellows present their research in national or international Infectious Diseases meetings.
Supervision and Evaluation:
Fellows will always be under the direct supervision of Infectious Diseases faculty and will progressively take on more responsibilities in patient care and team leadership as they demonstrate proficiency in the skills outlined in the program’s goals and objectives.
Fellows are evaluated on the program goals and objectives according to the 6 core ACGME competencies using:
- Monthly evaluations after completion of each clinical rotation.
- Twice per year evaluations by the clinical competence committee.
- Periodical meetings with program director and faculty mentor to assess educational progress, discuss career and research goals.
- Ongoing discussions with mentor/supervisor.
These evaluations help to appropriately advance the fellow's clinical responsibilities as they progress through the program.
Duty hours/Calls:
The program adheres to ACGME guidelines for work duty hours, ensuring a balance between high-quality education, safe and effective patient care, and the well-being of the trainees.
- After hours calls: Fellows carry a phone pager for after-hours calls, rotating this responsibility with traditional Infectious Diseases fellows on the same service.
- Weekend calls: Fellows are on call for two weekend days each month.
Other Educational Opportunities:
- During the optional second year, the fellow will work independently under the direct supervision of staff.
- The second-year fellow will be expected to develop more in-depth analysis and plan of care and develop the skills for independence as an expert in Transplant and Oncology Infectious Diseases.
- In addition, the second-year fellow will have a dedicated half day outpatient clinic under supervision of a staff physician
- The 2nd year fellow will also Assist in leading the core curriculum and deliver an annual formal presentation to junior house staff and faculty.
Program Faculty & Leadership
David Tweardy, M.D., Professor and Head of Division of Internal Medicine
Dr. Tweardy is a graduate from Case Western Reserve University Infectious Diseases Fellowship program. His overall research interests focus on understanding and modulating the host damage response to microbial and other injuries to treat disease. His basic research interests over the past 30 years have centered on cytokines and cytokine signaling. In particular, he has focused on the second messenger— signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) 3 — which is critical in the signal transduction pathway of over 40 cytokines. Work by his group and others has shown that STAT3 makes essential contributions to chronic inflammation, fibrosis and cancer. The clinical research interests of Dr. Tweardy are focused on the use of a small-molecule STAT3 inhibitor, TTI-101, identified in his lab to treat and/or prevent chronic inflammation, fibrosis and cancer.
Roy Chemaly, M.D., MPH, CMQ, Professor, Department Chair and Director of the Clinical Virology Research program
Dr. Chemaly is a graduate from the Cleveland Clinic Infectious Diseases Fellowship program. He is a world leading researcher in virology. His interests include studies on epidemiology, severity, prognosis, prevention and treatment of respiratory viral infections in immunocompromised cancer patients and in prevention of health care-associated infections. He is the founder and past chair of the Transplant Infectious Diseases Interest Group of the American Society of Bone Marrow Transplantation. He also is a member of the writing committee of the ASBMT guidelines and the European Committee for infections in Leukemia (ECIL 8); executive member of the council for the International Immunocompromised Host Society (ICHS); and Chair for the working group on respiratory viruses (ESGREV) of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID).
Pablo C. Okhuysen, M.D., Professor and Fellowship Program Director
Dr. Okhuysen is a graduate from the UTHealth Houston Science Center McGovern Medical School/MD Anderson Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program (‘94). The Okhuysen laboratory research interests include the identification, epidemiology, pathogenesis, host immune response, treatment and prevention of gastrointestinal infections, including diarrheagenic Escherichia coli, Cryptosporidium, Clostridioides difficile in immunocompromised and cancer patients. Dr. Okhuysen served on the board of scientific advisors for the CDC and has been an advisor to NASA. He has served on the Infectious Diseases Society of America Publications and Research Awards Committees and was awarded the Oswald Avery Award for Early Achievement by the Infectious Diseases Society of America in 2007. He also is a past director of the NIH NCRR-funded General Clinical Research Center at UTHealth Houston/Memorial Hermann Hospital and co-lead the joint UTHealth Houston McGovern Medical School NIH CTSA-funded Center for Clinical and Translational Services. He has repeatedly received the best teacher award from fellows in the McGovern and BCM fellowship programs.
Eduardo Yepez Guevara, M.D., Assistant Professor and Fellowship Associate Program Director
Dr. Yepez is a graduate from the UTHealth Houston Science Center (UTHSC) McGovern Medical School/MD Anderson Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program with additional advanced training in Transplantation Infectious Diseases at UTHSC. He serves as the associate director of the Antibiotic Stewardship team and is an active member of the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee. Dr. Yepez’s research interests are infections in patients with hematological malignancies, including evaluation of reactivation or onset of new infections in cancer and immunocompromised patients exposed to new targeted cancer therapies and immunotherapy; gastrointestinal infections, including Clostridioides difficile infection; and viral hepatitis, including evaluation and treatment, risk of reactivation and safety of antiviral therapy. He also works at the viral hepatitis clinic and collaborates in multiple research projects.
Javier Adachi, M.D., Professor and Clinical Vice-Chair
Dr. Adachi is a graduate from the UTHealth Houston Science Center McGovern Medical School/MD Anderson Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program and is a past associate director of the infectious diseases fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Cener and Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Adachi is the clinical service director of Infectious Diseases in Leukemia and the director of the division’s quality improvement projects. He is involved in several research projects related to cancer patients. He actively mentors fellows, midlevel providers, nurses and junior Faculty participating in the Clinical Safety and Effectiveness course, a yearly QI (Quality Improvement) training course offered at MD Anderson that enhances training in QI and allows participants to apply for the Certificate in Medical Quality.
Ella Ariza, M.D., Professor
Dr. Ariza is a graduate from the University of Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital Infectious Diseases fellowship program, with subsequent third-year training in Transplant Infectious Diseases at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Dr. Ariza is the clinical service director of Infectious Diseases in the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant consult service. Her clinical and research interests include the management of infections in stem cell transplant recipients with an emphasis on viral respiratory and vaccine-preventable infections, as well as patients undergoing CAR-T and other adoptive cellular therapies.
Uddalak Bharadwaj, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Dr. Bharadwaj is a member of Dr. Tweardy’s Laboratory, which focuses on understanding and modulating the host damage response to microbial and traumatic injury to treat disease. His overall interest is in the role of IL-6/STAT3, IFN/STAT1/2 signaling in cancer initiation, progression and immune modulation. Dr. Bharadwaj is focused on delineating the exact roles of these pathways, especially a group of Interferon Stimulated Genes, the IFN-related DNA damage resistance signature (IRDS) gene set, in conferring chemo-radio resistance, and metastatic abilities to head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cells, as well as how the HNSCC-associated viruses, e.g. HPV (human papillomavirus), HCV (hepatitis C virus), modulate the STAT1/3 pathways to affect disease severity in these patients. Also, he is actively involved in preclinical research involving co targeting of STAT3, a known immune modulatory agent.
Anne-Marie Chaftari, M.D., Professor
Dr Chaftari is a graduate from Saint Joseph University, Faculty of Medicine in Beirut, Lebanon. She completed an anesthesia residency program at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, Internal Medicine Residency training at Staten Island University Hospital, in Staten Island, N.Y., a fellowship in Geriatrics at Tulane University Medical and postdoctoral training on Infectious Diseases at MD Anderson. She oversees the daily operation of Dr. Issam Raad’s clinical research team and the conduct of clinical studies. She leads several clinical research trials at the institution and collaborates in multiple multicenter clinical research projects sponsored by industry and NIH. Her clinical research areas of interest include infectious diseases complications in cancer patients, such as central line-associated bloodstream infections, and neutropenic fever. Other areas of interest include novel antimicrobial therapies and biomarkers of sepsis.
Natalie Janine Dailey Garnes, M.D., MPH, MS, Associate Professor
Dr. Garnes is a graduate from the Baylor College of Medicine Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program. Dr. Garnes is dually boarded in adult and pediatric infectious diseases. She is the clinical service director for the pediatric infectious diseases consult service, director of the outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy program and director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program. Her research interests include infections in pediatric immunocompromised and cancer patients.
Bruno P. Granwehr, M.D., Professor
Dr. Granwehr is a graduate from The University of Texas Medical Branch Infectious Diseases Fellowship program. He previously has served as site director and associate director of the MD Anderson UTHSC and BCM Infectious Diseases combined fellowship programs. He is the clinical director of the Infectious Diseases Hospital Medicine consult service. His research interests include the early identification of HIV in patients with newly diagnosed cancer and the oncologic complications of HIV. Dr. Granwehr is also interested in the management of HIV and hepatitis C infection in patients receiving cancer chemotherapy. Dr. Granwehr received the 2017-18 Best Infectious Diseases Fellowship Teacher Award from the BCM fellows.
Ray Hachem, M.D., Professor
Dr. Ray Hachem is director of the Infectious Disease Training & Observership program in the Department of Infectious Diseases, Infection Control & Employee Health at MD Anderson. His research interests focus on pathophysiology and management of diseases in humans caused by bacterial and fungal pathogens. He has been involved in conducting many clinical trials, as well as basic and translational research that pave the way to multiple studies to improve the care of cancer patients with infections. He has worked extensively on clinical trials pertaining to invasive fungal infections and device related infections. He has been involved in over 20 clinical trials or laboratory studies, including several animal models. Dr. Hachem served as the chairman of the Division of Internal Medicine Research Committee. He also serves on the Institutional Review Board, the Institutional Research Grant (IRG) Committee, and the Ad Hoc Committee of the Infection Control Committee for the Prevention of Fungal Infections.
Teny M. John, M.B.B.S., M.D., Assistant Professor
Dr. John is a graduate from the Cleveland Clinic Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program. His clinical expertise lies in mycology, emphasizing diagnostics, therapeutics, and stewardship. Dr. John holds the position of chair at the department's pivotal Wednesday clinical conference. His research focuses on mycology and breath metabolomics. He actively contributes as a member of the "Young MSG" within the Mycosis Study Group, the consortium for clinical metagenomics in infectious diseases and serves on the ID Metabolites/Direct MALDI Work group for the American Society of Transplantation Biomarker Consensus Conference.
Moses Kasembeli, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Dr. Kasembeli is a member of Dr. Tweardy’s Laboratory, which focuses on understanding and modulating the host damage response to microbial and traumatic injury to treat disease. Dr. Kasembeli’s research is centered on the development of potent and selective inhibitors of STAT3 activity to target cancer and diseases marked by chronic inflammation. He also studies molecular mechanisms of a rare primary immune deficiency syndrome linked to loss of function of STAT3. He is primarily interested in the modulation of the activity of STAT3 with the goal of reducing its activity in diseases in which it is hyper-activated, such as cancer, and enhance its activity in diseases marked by loss of function of STAT3, such as autosomal dominant hyper IgE syndrome (AD-HIES).
Fareed Khawaja, M.D., Associate Professor
Dr. Khawaja completed his Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases training at McGovern Medical School UTHealth Science Center at MD Anderson. His research scope is clinical studies focused on viral infections in patients with hematologic malignancies and recipients of cellular therapy. He leads multiple interventional trials to treat and prevent CMV and respiratory viral infections (including COVID-19). In addition, he heads multiple database studies to measure infectious complications in recipients of novel therapies for hematologic malignancies, such as CAR (Chimeric Antigen Receptor) T cell therapy.
Dimitrios P Kontoyiannis, M.D., Sc.D., Professor
Dr. Kontoyiannis is the Robert Hickey Endowed Chair, a professor in Infectious Diseases, and the deputy head of research in the Division of Internal Medicine. Dr. Kontoyiannis is a graduate from Massachusetts General Hospital’s Harvard Medical School Infectious Diseases Fellowship program. He is a leading world researcher in mycology, studying the pathogenesis of invasive fungal infections (IFIs) and the development of novel therapeutic strategies against these devastating infections. Other areas of interest include antifungal resistance, novel diagnostics, delivery systems and fungal pharmacology. For more than 25 years, the Kontoyiannis laboratory and clinical research program has made significant contributions to broaden our understanding and knowledge of IFIs, the immunopathology of IFIs, activity of conventional and novel antifungal compounds and combination therapy, including development of novel experimental Drosophila and mice models. Dr. Kontoyiannis has been member of the writing committee for aspergillus treatment guidelines for Infectious Diseases Society Of America and the chair of the treatment guidelines for aspergillosis and rare molds for American Society of Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, president-elect of the Mycoses Study Group (2024-2026), past president of the International Immunocompromised Host Society and leader of the European Confederation for Medical Mycology (ECMM) Diamond Excellence in Mycology Center at MD Anderson. He is a recipient of many national and international prestigious awards for his research in mycology and a member of honorific societies such as Association of American Physicians, American Medical Association and American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Victor E. Mulanovich, M.D., Professor
Dr. Mulanovich has served as Infectious Diseases department chair ad interim, past clinical vicechair. Dr. Mulanovich is a graduate from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program. He conducts research in immunocompromised and cancer patients. His clinical research interests include infections in patients with hematologic malignancies and in recipients of hematopoietic stem cell transplants. He was Director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program. In multiple occasions, he received the outstanding teaching award in Infectious Diseases by UTHSC and BCM.
Issam I. Raad, M.D., Professor
Dr. Raad has previously served as department chair of Infectious Diseases. He is a graduate from the University of Florida Infectious Diseases fellowship program. Dr. Raad is considered one of the world’s leading experts in health care-related infections and infections in cancer. His research includes development of innovative antimicrobial central venous catheters and devices that have reduced the risk of bloodstream infections worldwide by more than 12-fold. In the most recent CDC Guidelines (2011), his innovations (including the antimicrobial catheters and maximal sterile barrier) have been recommended at the highest level (Category 1A) for the prevention of health care associated bloodstream infections, which have become the standard of care. He has expanded his research to develop other antimicrobial coated devices, including urologic and breast implants, ventriculostomy and drainage catheters. He has been awarded as distinguished educator at MD Anderson in 2019 and The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America’s Mentor Scholar award in 2015.
Prema Robinson, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Dr. Robinson is a member of Dr. Tweardy’s Laboratory, which focuses on understanding and modulating the host damage response to microbial and traumatic injury to treat disease. Dr. Robinson is actively involved in studying the role of substance P, a pro-inflammatory neuropeptide and pain transmitter in various cancers, including inflammation-associated colon cancer and triple negative breast cancer.
Samuel Shelburne, M.D., Ph.D., Professor
Dr. Shelburne is a graduate from the Baylor College of Medicine/MD Anderson Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program. Dr. Shelburne is the deputy chair for scholarly activity in the department, director for the Genomic Infectious Diseases research group at MD Anderson, leading member for the steering committees for antibiotic resistance, Gulf Coast Consortium on Antimicrobial Resistance and Microbiome working groups. He is also a member of the Antimicrobial Resistance Peer Reviewed Medical research program, a medical research program at the U.S. Department of Defense directed by Congress. His research team focuses on understanding the molecular basis of bacterial infections in humans and the molecular basis underlying bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Dr. Shelburne is the head of the immunocompromised section of the NIH Funded Antibiotic Resistance Leadership Group and has published on AMR mechanisms in bacteria ranging from Staphylococcus epidermidis to Escherichia coli. The Shelburne laboratory seeks to understand how variation in bacterial virulence impacts clinical outcomes, using group A streptococcus (GAS) as a model organism. Specific projects include unraveling the complex regulation of virulence by the two-component regulatory system CovRS in GAS, identifying mechanisms driving emergence of new GAS clones, and understanding how resistance to oxidative stress impacts disease occurrence. He also received the outstanding clinical research mentor at MD Anderson School of Health Professions in 2019.
Amy Spallone, M.D., Assistant Professor and Chief Infection Control Officer
Dr. Spallone is a graduate from the Baylor College of Medicine/MD Anderson Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program. Dr. Spallone is the chief infection control officer at MD Anderson and our department's patient quality safety officer. Dr. Spallone’s research interests include emerging pathogens, viral infections, and infection control measures in immunocompromised populations. Under the mentorship of Dr. Roy Chemaly, Dr. Spallone assists in several clinical trials, including investigational antiviral agents for respiratory viral pathogens and mapping changes in the respiratory microbiome/virome composition to predict clinical outcomes in hematopoietic cell transplantation recipients and patients with leukemia. She is the primary investigator on environmental surface disinfection studies piloting hand-held UV devices and a co-mentor/collaborator with Dr. Sam Shelburne on utilizing Oxford Nanopore Technology third generation sequencing for rapid identification of hospital-acquired infections in health care settings.
Krithika Srinivasan, M.D., Assistant Professor
Dr. Srinivasan is a graduate from the Baylor College of Medicine/MD Anderson Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program, and she also completed a secondary fellowship in Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control at Stanford University Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine Fellowship Program. She is the medical director of Employee Health at MD Anderson. Her interests include the mitigation of biohazards, infection prevention and occupational health in higher education and research institutions.
Ariel Szvalb, M.D., Associate Professor
Dr. Szvalb is a graduate from the Baylor College of Medicine/MD Anderson Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program and past member of Faculty Senate and Pharmacy and Therapeutic Committee. Dr. Szvalb is also a member of Dr. Kontoyiannis clinical research group. His research interests include Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia, invasive fungal infections, and device-related infections such as percutaneous nephrostomy tubes, Foley catheters, and Ommaya reservoirs.
Harrys Torres, M.D., Professor
Dr. Torres is an Ashbel Smith Distinguished Professor and Adjunct Professor at the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition. Dr. Torres is a graduate from the UTHealth Houston Science Center McGovern Medical School/MD Anderson Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program. He is the founder and director of the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) clinic at MD Anderson, the first established clinic in the U.S., and likely in the world, devoted to managing HCV in cancer patients. He is a member of numerous national committees for professional societies such as American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, European Association for the Study of the Liver, Infectious Diseases Society of America and European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. He is the Chair of the AASLD Special Interest Group on HCV. His research interest is to facilitate translational research in the prevention, detection, and treatment of HCV in patients with cancer and hematopoietic cell transplantation. His work addressed the fact that HCV is a neglected condition in cancer patients. Additionally, he has discovered new associations between HCV and other cancers (e.g., Head and Neck cancers). He has also documented the effectiveness, benefits and safety of antiviral therapy in HCV-infected patients with cancer including those with hepatocellular carcinoma and B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He is the principal investigator for research grants on HCV received from the NIH/NCI and pharmaceutical companies (investigator-initiated studies). Dr. Torres lectures widely nationally and internationally on viral hepatitis in cancer patients. Dr. Torres' work has significantly impacted the standard of care for HCV-infected cancer patients.
George M. Viola, M.D., MPH, Professor
Dr. Viola is a graduate from the Baylor College of Medicine Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program. Dr. Viola is the director of the outpatient clinic and the Solid Cancer and Surgical Related Infectious Diseases services. His main research interests are the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of medical device-related infections in immunocompromised and cancer patients, such as: cardiac implantable electronic device, intravenous catheters, breast tissue expanders after mastectomy, nephrostomy tubes and Ommaya reservoirs.
Sebastian Wurster, M.D., Assistant Professor
A member of Dr. Kontoyiannis’ lab, Dr. Wurster’s research interests are the immunopathology and immunotherapy of fungal infections, innovative mammalian models and mini-host models of invasive mycoses, and translational research as it relates to the diagnosis and treatment of fungal infections. Specifically, he is studying immune checkpoint inhibitors and other immune therapeutics as experimental treatments in murine models of invasive mold infections. Furthermore, he has been a driving force in the development of a high-throughput larval zebrafish model to study interactions of pathogenic fungi with epithelial barriers. He has also developed automated image analysis algorithms to dissect the morphogenesis and proliferation of molds during antifungal (combination) therapy and immune cell encounters. Dr. Wurster has been the recipient of the Division of Internal Medicine Research & Quality Improvement Award 2020 and Cyrus Scholar Award 2021.
Support Staff:
Ms. Lauren Sutton. Program Manager. LMSutton1@mdanderson.org
Ms. Gabrielle E King. Program Coordinator. geking1@mdanderson.org
Trainee Success & Program Outcomes
Recent graduates include faculty at the following institutions:
- Mayo Clinic Orthopedic Infectious Diseases Fellowship
- Lehigh Valley Heatlh Network
- Infectious Diseases private practice in Mexico
- Houston Methodist Hospital
- Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport
- OSF Saint Francis Medical Center
- Orlando Health Medical Group
Fellow and Faculty Publications
- Matsuo T, Singh BS, Wurster S, Jiang Y, Bhutani MS, Chatterjee D, Kontoyiannis DP. J Infect. 2024 Jul;89(1):106172. doi: 10.1016/j.jinf.2024.106172. Epub 2024 May 10. PMID: 38735485.
- Chiu CY, John TM, Matsuo T, Wurster S, Hicklen RS, Khattak RR, Ariza-Heredia EJ, Bose P, Kontoyiannis DP. J Fungi (Basel). 2024 Mar 31;10(4):264. doi: 10.3390/jof10040264. PMID: 38667935; PMCID: PMC11051496.
- Matsuo T, Wurster S, Jiang Y, Tarrand J, Kontoyiannis DP. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2024 Feb 13;11(2): ofae068. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofae068. PMID: 38379571; PMCID: PMC10878051.
- Matsuo T, Wurster S, Kontoyiannis DP. Clin Infect Dis. 2024 Jan 4: ciad768. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciad768. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38173423.
- Matsuo T, Wurster S, Jiang Y, Sasaki K, Tarrand J, Lewis RE, Kontoyiannis DP. J Antimicrob Chemother. 2024 Feb 1;79(2):297-306. doi: 10.1093/jac/dkad377. PMID: 38073151.
- Chiu CY, Matsuo T, Wurster S, Gerstein Y, Hammond DE, Chien KS, DiNardo C, Kontoyiannis DP. . Mycoses. 2023 Dec;66(12):1029-1034. doi: 10.1111/myc.13638. Epub 2023 Aug 7. PMID: 37550272.
- Takahiro Matsuo, Ben S Singh, Sebastian Wurster, Ying Jiang, Manoop S Bhutani, Dimitrios P Kontoyiannis, 482. The modern face of esophageal candidiasis (EC) in an oncology center: Analysis of 323 cancer patients with EC, Open Forum Infectious Diseases, Volume 9, Issue Supplement_2, December 2022, ofac492.540,
- Chiu CY, Matsuo T, Wurster S, Gerstein Y, Hammond DE, Chien KS, DiNardo C, Kontoyiannis DP. Mycoses. 2023 Aug 7. doi: 10.1111/myc.13638. Epub ahead of print
- Raad II, Hachem R, Masayuki N, Datoguia T, Dagher H, Jiang Y, Subbiah V, Siddiqui B, Bayle A, Somer R, Fernández Cruz A, Gorak E, Bhinder A, Mori N, Hamerschlak N, Shelanski S, Dragovich T, Vong Kiat YE, Fakhreddine S, Pierre AH, Chemaly RF, Mulanovich V, Adachi J, Borjan J, Khawaja F, Granwehr B, John T, Yepez EY, Torres HA, Ammakkanavar NR, Yibirin M, Reyes-Gibby CC, Pande M, Ali N, Rojo RD, Ali SM, Deeba RE, Chaftari P, Matsuo T, Ishikawa K, Hasegawa R, Aguado-Noya R, García AG, Puchol CT, Lee DG, Slavin M, Teh B, Arias CA; Data-Driven Determinants for COVID-19 Oncology Discovery Effort (D3CODE) Team; Kontoyiannis DP, Malek AE, Chaftari AM. Elife. 2023 Jan 30;12: e81127. doi: 10.7554/eLife.81127
- Inderjit Mann MD, Pablo C. Okhuysen MD. Poster presented at ID week 2022, # 656
- Oscar Morado Aramburo, Amy Spallone, Fareed Khawaja, Joseph Sassine, Krithia Srinivasan, Anthony J Febres-Aldana, Terri Lynn Shigle, Gabriella Rondon, Jeremy Ramdial, Elizabeth Shpall, Ella Ariza-Heredia, Roy F Chemaly, 2121. The Impact of Donor CMV Serostatus on Outcomes of CMV Infections in the Era of Letermovir, Open Forum Infectious Diseases, Volume 9, Issue Supplement_2, December 2022, ofac492.1742,
- Malek AE, Adachi JA, Mulanovich VE, Sassine J, Raad II, McConn K, Seiler GT, Dhal U, Khawaja F, Chemaly RF. Transpl Infect Dis. 2021 Aug;23(4): e13606. doi: 10.1111/tid.13606. Epub 2021 Apr 3
- Malek AE, Khalil M, Hachem R, Chaftari AM, Fares J, Jiang Y, Kontoyiannis DP, Fossella F, Chaftari P, Mulanovich VE, Viola GM, Raad II. Clin Infect Dis. 2021 Nov 2;73(9): e2697-e2704. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa802.
- Malek AE, Granwehr BP. 2021 Jan;57(1):106168. doi: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2020.106168.
- Chaftari P, Chaftari AM, Hachem R, Yeung SJ, Dagher H, Jiang Y, Malek AE, Dailey Garnes N, Mulanovich VE, Raad I. Cancer Med. 2021 Dec;10(23):8475-8482. doi: 10.1002/cam4.4355. Epub 2021 Nov 1
- Malek AE, Dagher H, Hachem R, Chaftari AM, Raad II. J Med Virol. 2021 Jul;93(7):4083-4084. doi: 10.1002/jmv.26915. Epub 2021 Mar 14.
- Viola GM, Malek AE, Rosen LB, DiNardo AR, Nishiguchi T, Okhuysen PC, Holland SM, Kontoyiannis DP. Mycoses. 2021 Jun;64(6):576-582. doi: 10.1111/myc.13247. Epub 2021 Feb 5.
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Why This Program
In addition to gaining unparalleled education and training experience, MD Anderson trainees have access to exceptional resources and benefits to help them build meaningful careers and lead fulfilling lives.
Institutional benefits and support
GME trainees’ salary stipends are updated every year based on the ACGME’s recommendations, and because our trainees are considered workforce members, they also enjoy MD Anderson’s employee benefits, including health insurance, retirement planning, disability insurance and six weeks of parental leave.
Our GME House Staff Senate offers trainees the opportunity to experience a leadership role in a medical field career, and the institution’s Academic Mentoring Council provides avenues to secure tailored academic mentoring from faculty. Our GME trainees benefit from the extensive support offered to our research trainees, too; they are invited to participate in grant application workshops, apply for pilot grants to support their research ideas and receive monetary awards for securing extramural grant funding.
Trainee wellness is also of utmost importance at MD Anderson.
Our trainees have access to MD Anderson’s employee networks, fitness center and other wellness resources provided by the institution. Additionally, our Graduate Medical Education Committee (GMEC), which provides oversight of our accredited programs, regularly assess our trainees’ needs and implements various initiatives, such as providing free call meals and discounted parking to GME House Staff, to address those gaps. The committee even has a subcommittee entirely dedicated to supporting the wellness of our trainees.
Our efforts to ensure a welcoming and supportive education and training experience have been commended nationally. In 2023, the Office of Graduate Medical Education received the DeWitt C. Baldwin, Jr. Award, a prestigious national award that recognizes our institution for its respectful and supportive environment for delivering medical education and patient care.
Beyond MD Anderson
MD Anderson’s location has many benefits, too. Our main campus is nestled inside the Texas Medical Center, the world’s largest medical center which boasts about 10 million patient encounters each year. Many of our faculty are involved in interorganizational research collaborations, both within the TMC and across the nation, exposing trainees to groundbreaking advancements in medical care in real time.
Most importantly, the city of Houston is a great place to call home and raise a family. We are one of the most culturally diverse cities in the nation. More than 145 different languages are spoken across the city, placing us behind only New York and Los Angeles. In fact, about 30% of the city’s population speaks a language other than English at home. And, paychecks here stretch farther than most U.S. metro areas, thanks to our low cost of living.