Erol Fikrig, MD, is chief of Infectious Diseases and specializes in treating patients with vector-borne diseases including Dengue fever, West Nile virus, Lyme disease, and malaria.
Vector-borne diseases are caused by infections transmitted to humans and other animals by mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, and other blood-feeding invertebrates.
Dr. Fikrig’s research focuses on understanding Lyme disease, human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (a rare infectious disease), malaria, and flaviviruses (vector-borne viruses that can cause a variety of diseases including hepatitis, encephalitis, and congenital abnormalities).
He is interested in molecular approaches to prevent ticks and mosquitoes from feeding on mammalian hosts. For example, he and his team are developing a Lyme disease vaccine that uses mRNA technology to target deer ticks, which transmit the disease. Dr. Fikrig hopes to use this strategy to fight other illnesses, such as babesiosis, dengue, and malaria.
Dr. Fikrig has received numerous awards, including the National Foundation of Infectious Disease Young Investigator Award, Infectious Disease Society of America Vaccine Development Award, American Heart Association Young Investigator Award, Arthritis Foundation Investigator Award, and the Burroughs Wellcome Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research. He was also a Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
