Homayoon Farzadegan, PhD

Homayoon Farzadegan received his PhD from the University of Georgia in 1973 and did his postdoctoral training at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He joined the Bloomberg School of Public Health in 1986. He is currently a research professor in the Infectious Disease Program in the Department of Epidemiology.

Dr. Farzadegan is also the director of the Human Retrovirus Research Laboratory, Infectious Disease Program, Bloomberg School of Public. He is the principal investigator on several research studies which include the following: Epidemiology of Transmission of Drug Resistant HIV-1 in Injection Drug Users in Baltimore; The Effect of Hormones on HIV-1 Infection among Female Injection Drug Users; and Pathogenesis and Progression of HIV in Injection Drug User Cohorts at the Montifiore Medical Center in New York. He is a co-investigator on the following studies: Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS); Natural History of HIV Infection in Injection Drug Users, and Incidence of HIV Infection in a Cohort of IV Drug Users. He has edited Survival of HIV in Environment Waters Proceedings and several chapters in HIV-1 Antibodies and Serology.

Dr. Farzadegan has been a consultant to several organizations including: New York Academy of Science; Technology Transfer Committee, Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is a reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals including: Journal of Medicine, American Journal of Epidemiology, Annals of Internal Medicine, Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Journal of Infectious Diseases, Journal of Clinical Microbiology, and Journal of AIDS.

Dr. Farzadegan was awarded a Golden Apple award in 2002. The Golden Apple Award is a symbol of SPH student recognition for excellence in teaching.

Keri Althoff, PhD, MPH

My main research interests include age-related and non-age-related outcomes in the context of aging with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Age-related outcomes in the context of HIV infection include cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and influenza vaccination and infection. Non-age-related outcomes in the context of aging in HIV-infected individuals include immunologic and virologic response to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Research objectives include 1) determining the predictive accuracy of HIV biomarkers for disease progression in women aging with HIV infection; 2) determining the relationship of biomarkers of cardiovascular disease with HIV infection; 3) determining the relationship of immune markers on the development of metabolic diseases in HIV-infected individuals; 4) determining the effectiveness of the influenza vaccination in HIV-infected individuals; and 5) response to HAART by decade of age and initial HAART regimen. Other research interests include sex-based differences in HIV viral load, health disparities in special populations, and epidemiologic methodology issues in prediction modeling and causal inference of treatment effects. I investigate these topics using nested study designs in the MACS, WIHS, ALIVE and NA-ACCORD cohorts of HIV-infected and -uninfected individuals.

Jay H. Bream, PhD

(see Dr. Bream's JHSPH profile page)

Meghan Davis, DVM, MPH

Meghan Davis is a doctor of veterinary medicine and a PhD candidate in the School of Public Health.

Patti Gravitt, MS, PhD

Patti Gravitt is currently a research fellow at the National Cancer Institute, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics. She received her MS in biology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and her PhD in Epidemiology from the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her dissertation topic was HPV Viral Load as a Co-Factor for Cervical Neoplastic Progression: Assessment of Temporality and Potential Misclassification of Viral Load.

Prior to pursuing her doctoral degree, Dr. Gravitt developed the current gold standard PCR methods for HPV DNA detection and genotyping at Roche Molecular Systems, Inc. Her primary research interests include the molecular epidemiology of HPV-associated carcinogenesis and assessment of misclassification in the application of biomarker assays in epidemiologic study design.

Diane E. Griffin, MD, PhD

Diane Griffin received a BA in biology from Augustana College, Rock Island, IL (1962); an MD in medicine from Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA (1968); and a PhD in immunology from Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA (1970).

Dr. Griffin's current professional affiliations (committees, societies, editorial boards, honors, etc.) include the American Association of Immunologists (1975–present); Infectious Diseases Society of America (fellow, 1978–present); American Society for Clinical Investigation (1982–present); editorial board, Virology (1984–present); editorial board, Virus Research (1993–present); American Society for Virology (Council 1984–89; president 1999–2000); editor, Journal of Virology (1994–present); American Association for the Advancement of Science (fellow, 1975–present, Council 1995–1997). She has published roughly 210 journal articles.

Her research interests include pathogenesis of viral diseases; studies of the viral, cellular, and immunologic determinants of diseases induced by alphaviruses and acute encephalitis; measles virus, immune response suppression, and atypical measles; and HIV and AIDS-associated dementia.

John Groopman, PhD

John Groopman earned his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979. He is currently the chair of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and is affiliated with the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Groopman's research involves the development and application of molecular biomarkers of exposure, dose, and effect from environmental carcinogens. The environmental carcinogens studied include agents that are naturally occurring in the diet as well as those produced as a result of cooking practices. A major emphasis of the research has been in the elucidation of the role of aflatoxins, a common contaminate of the food supply, in the induction of liver cancer in high-risk populations living in Asia and Africa. This work has led to the identification of a very strong chemical-viral interaction between aflatoxin and the human hepatitis B virus in the induction of liver cancer. Thus, the research focuses on the translation of mechanistic research to public health-based prevention strategies.

Craig W. Hendrix, MD

Craig Hendrix is an associate professor of medicine (clinical pharmacology and infectious diseases, pharmacology, and epidemiology). His research interests include chemoprevention of infection (principally microbicides to prevent HIV infection), development of new drugs for treatment of HIV infection, and the study of drugs which interact with drugs for HIV and hepatitis infections.

Richard T. Johnson, MD

Richard Johnson is the former director of the Department of Neurology at The Johns Hopkins University and Neurologist-in-Chief at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He "retired" in 1997 to become founding director of the National Neuroscience Institute of Singapore, editor of the Annals of Neurology, active member of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and to continue as professor of neurology, microbiology, and neuroscience in the School of Medicine. In 2000, he retired as director of the Institute in Singapore, was reappointed editor of the Annals of Neurology for a second four-year term, and in 2001 was appointed as a part time special consultant on transmissible spongiform encephalopathies to the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Johnson has published over 300 original articles and chapters and edited 10 books. He has also published a single authored volume on Viral Infections of the Nervous System (1982; 2nd edition 1998). He has received numerous national and international awards, including a Humboldt Prize (German), Commendador of the Order of Hipolito Unanue (by the President of Peru), the Charcot Award (International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Societies), the first Association of British Neurologists Multiple Sclerosis Medal, the first Soriano Award for the World Federation of Neurology, and the first Pioneer Award from the International Society of Neurovirology. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1987 and in 1998 was a founding member of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense.

Dr. Johnson was president of the American Neurological Association from 1986–7. He has held many positions in the American Academy of Neurology and the World Federation of Neurology, and he is an honorary member of many international neurological societies. He was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 1969, to the Association of American Physicians in 1984 and to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 1987. In 2001, he was made a Distinguished Service Professor of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Shruti Mehta, PhD, MPH

Dr. Shruti Mehta is an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She received her Masters in Public Health degree in 1998 from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and her PhD from the Department of Epidemiology, Division of Infectious Disease at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2002. Her work primarily focuses on HIV and HCV coinfection and, specifically, access to care and treatment for these infections among injection drug users.

Dr. Mehta is the principal investigator of the ALIVE II study, which is an observational cohort designed to study the incidence of HIV infection among injection drug users in Baltimore. She is also a co-investigator on studies examining the effect of antiretroviral therapy on liver disease among HIV/HCV coinfected individuals and on clinical trials comparing the efficacy of directly-observed therapy for HCV infection versus standard of care for HIV/HCV coinfected and HCV monoinfected injection drug users in HIV care and drug treatment. She also collaborates with the National AIDS Research Institute in Pune, India on projects related to HIV and access to antiretroviral therapy.

Anne Rompalo, MD, ScM

Dr. Rompalo is a Professor of Medicine with a primary appointment in the JHU School of Medicine (SOM), Division of Infectious Diseases.  She has a joint appointment in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and faculty appointments in the Departments of Population, Family and Reproductive Health and Epidemiology at the JHU Bloomberg School of Public Health (SPH).  Dr. Rompalo is recognized both nationally and internationally as an expert in the field of STD research and application.  Since 1993, she has been the Medical Director and Primary Investigator for the Region III PTC.  In that capacity, she has worked collaboratively with other training agencies within the Region and the nation to develop, conduct and evaluate needs assessment surveys.  She has extensive experience developing such instruments, conducting and evaluating the results, and developing curricula to address the needs identified.  Dr. Rompalo has over 20 years of experience in conducting research in the STD field.  She has actively participated in the design and site-specific conduct of several national behavioral intervention studies, including Project Respect and the NIMH Multisite HIV Prevention Trial.

Robert Yolken, MD

Robert Yolken is a professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and is also a professor of neurovirology in the JHU Stanley Division of Developmental Neurovirology.