Julie McElrath

Julie McElrath
Born
Juliana McElrath

(1951-01-09) January 9, 1951
EducationFurman University (BS)
Medical University of South Carolina (MD, PhD)
EmployerUniversity of Washington

Dr. Juliana McElrath (born January 9, 1951) is the senior vice president and director of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. She is the principal investigator of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network Laboratory Center in Seattle, Washington,[1][2] and a professor at the University of Washington.[3]

McElrath established an international human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) vaccine laboratory.[4] Her research focuses on HIV vaccine development, investigating the relationship between HIV and the immune system, and has received support from the National Institutes of Health as well as the Gates Foundation.[1]

Education and career

McElrath obtained her Bachelor of Science in biology from Furman University. She then obtained a PhD in pathology and an MD from the Medical University of South Carolina.[1] After completing her residency in internal medicine, she received clinical fellowship training in infectious diseases at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. She later completed postdoctoral training in molecular immunology at Rockefeller University in New York.[1]

During the early 1980s, McElrath worked as a medical resident in Charleston, South Carolina. During this time, McElrath developed an interest in HIV/AIDS research.[1] She continued this focus during her time in New York City.[5]

In 1988, she became an assistant professor at Rockefeller University. In 1990, McElrath joined the University of Washington as an assistant professor and director of the HIV/AIDS Madison Clinic at Harborview Medical Center. Within two years, she returned to full-time research, focusing on the development of an HIV vaccine.[6] She later became the director of the AIDS Vaccine Evaluation Unit at the University of Washington.[6]

In 1996, McElrath joined the faculty at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. She received a National Institutes of Health MERIT Award for her research and served as associate editor of The Journal of Infectious Diseases.[6] She later became a full professor at the University of Washington, a full member at Fred Hutchinson, and director of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HTVN) Laboratory Center, a network that tests vaccines designed to prevent HIV.

McElrath, with colleagues and collaborators at Duke University and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, published work pinpointing "immune correlates" associated with reduced HIV risk. One finding suggested that the vaccines might create antibodies that prevent HIV infection.[7] In 2013, she helped launch Cape Town HVTN Immunology in Cape Town, South Africa.[8]

In addition to her research, McElrath is an attending physician at Harborview Medical Center, the University of Washington Medical Center, and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. She has authored or co-authored nearly 300 peer-reviewed publications, primarily on HIV/AIDS. In 2007, she co-founded the Vaccine Infectious Disease Institute at Fred Hutchinson and has served as the director of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division since 2011.[1]

McElrath is a member of the Association of American Physicians, the American College of Physicians, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, among other professional organisations.

Research

McElrath's scientific interests include understanding the human immune system responses that regulate and prevent HIV-1 infection.[9] She continues to be involved in a global initiative to develop an HIV-1 vaccine and research aiming to identify innate and mucosal immune defences generated following vaccination.[10]

McElrath has contributed to numerous integrated programs at the national and international levels to advance a coordinated effort to curb the HIV epidemic through prevention efforts. These include the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, the Gates Foundation Innate Immunity Consortium (PI), the Microbicide Trials Network (director, Immunology Core), and the Seattle Vaccine Trials Unit (PI).[11]

Research in the McElrath Laboratory at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center includes studying how T cell memory is induced by natural infection and immunization. McElrath and her team are also working to identify the properties of T cells that confer containment or eradication of HIV-1.[12] Their studies span a wide array of immunologic investigations in persons who experience unusual control of HIV-1 infection, including individuals with newly diagnosed infection, those with long-term non-progressive disease who control infection for more than a decade without anti-retroviral treatment, and people repeatedly exposed but not infected.[13] These clinical cohorts have been assembled for longitudinal studies in Seattle, as well as South Africa and Uganda, two nations where the HIV epidemic is widespread.[14]

On 1 December 2015, the work of McElrath and HTVN scientists investigating a vaccine to potentially halt HIV and AIDS was highlighted in an HBO/VICE special report titled "Countdown to Zero."[15]

Recognition

She has received awards such as the Burroughs Welcome Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research, a National Institutes of Health Merit Award, and the GAIA Vaccine Foundation Award. She holds leadership roles at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and serves as principal investigator of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network Laboratory Program at the Ragon Institute.[16]

Selected works


References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "2013 Women of Influence: Dr. Julie McElrath". Puget Sound Business Journal.
  2. ^ "HIV: the final battle". Seattle Times.
  3. ^ "HIV/AIDS: Strategies for an Endgame". Archived from the original on 2015-12-08.
  4. ^ "2010 HOPE IS A VACCINE AWARDS CEREMONY". 16 June 2010.
  5. ^ "Top Doctors 2012: Global Health Awards". Seattle Magazine. Archived from the original on 2015-12-08. Retrieved 2015-11-30.
  6. ^ a b c "2002 AIDS Symposium Keynote Address". Alpha Omega Alpha.
  7. ^ Haynes, Barton F.; Gilbert, Peter B.; McElrath, M. Juliana; Zolla-Pazner, Susan; Tomaras, Georgia D.; Alam, S. Munir; Evans, David T.; Montefiori, David C.; Karnasuta, Chitraporn; Sutthent, Ruengpueng; Liao, Hua-Xin; DeVico, Anthony L.; Lewis, George K.; Williams, Constance; Pinter, Abraham (2012-04-05). "Immune-Correlates Analysis of an HIV-1 Vaccine Efficacy Trial". New England Journal of Medicine. 366 (14): 1275–1286. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1113425. ISSN 0028-4793. PMC 3371689. PMID 22475592.
  8. ^ "The Search for an HIV Vaccine". Quest Magazine.
  9. ^ Mascola, John; King, Richter; Steinman, Ralph; Working Group convened by the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise (2010-09-07). "Immunogens and Antigen Processing: Report from a Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise Working Group". Nature Precedings. doi:10.1038/npre.2010.4796.2.
  10. ^ Gray, Glenda E; Allen, Mary; Moodie, Zoe; Churchyard, Gavin; Bekker, Linda-Gail; Nchabeleng, Maphoshane; Mlisana, Koleka; Metch, Barbara; De Bruyn, Guy; Latka, Mary H; Roux, Surita; Mathebula, Matsontso; Naicker, Nivashnee; Ducar, Constance; Carter, Donald K; Puren, Adrien; Eaton, Niles; McElrath, M Julie; Robertson, Michael; Corey, Lawrence; Kublin, James G (2011). "Safety and efficacy of the HVTN 503/Phambili Study of a clade-B-based HIV-1 vaccine in South Africa: A double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled test-of-concept phase 2b study". The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 11 (7): 507–15. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(11)70098-6. PMC 3417349. PMID 21570355.
  11. ^ McElrath, Margaret. "Grantome.com". Grantome.
  12. ^ "NIH AIDS Vaccine Research Subcommittee Meeting—January 27-28, 2009". Archived from the original on June 28, 2011.
  13. ^ Tomaras, Georgia; Haynes, Barton (2013). "Advancing Toward HIV-1 Vaccine Efficacy through the Intersections of Immune Correlates". Vaccines. 2 (1): 15–35. doi:10.3390/vaccines2010015. PMC 4053939. PMID 24932411.
  14. ^ Latka, Mary H; Fielding, Katherine; Gray, Glenda E; Bekker, Linda-Gail; Nchabeleng, Maphoshane; Mlisana, Koleka; Nielson, Tanya; Roux, Surita; Mkhize, Baningi; Mathebula, Matsontso; Naicker, Nivashnee; De Bruyn, Guy; Kublin, James; Churchyard, Gavin J (2012). "Pregnancy Incidence and Correlates during the HVTN 503 Phambili HIV Vaccine Trial Conducted among South African Women". PLOS ONE. 7 (4) e31387. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...731387L. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0031387. PMC 3331975. PMID 22532824.
  15. ^ "Scientific Advisory Board | Ragon Institute". 2025-09-15.
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