Transplant Infectious Disease & Compromised Host Fellowship

The fellows in this program are responsible for the clinical care of complex immunocompromised patients, the education of junior residents and fellows, and the presentation of the biomedical literature in related fields at weekly journal clubs and clinical rounds. The fellows will also develop and complete a research study under the guidance of a Mass General mentor.

Additional years of training are available in clinical or basic research as a way for fellows to improve their skills as investigators. These opportunities depend on the availability of research funding and acceptance by a mentor for that experience. The Mass General Transplant Center offers a training grant for pre- and postdoctoral basic research fellows in basic immunology by an internal application process that may fund two-to-three years of research support.

Other options may include:

• Developing a clinical research project in outcomes research in collaboration with the program faculty at the Harvard School of Public Health’s Program in Clinical Effectiveness
• Assisting in the design and performance of a bench research project in transplantation immunology and infectious disease with the Transplant Infectious Disease Program faculty or the transplantation research faculty at Mass General and Harvard Medical School

Jay Fishman, MD 

Dr. Jay Fishman is the director of the Transplant Infectious Disease (ID) and Compromised Host Program, director of the Transplant ID Fellowship Program, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is co-director of a training grant in transplant immunology which provides support for basic research training for pre- and post-doctoral fellows. 

His research in the Center for Transplantation Sciences is focused on the molecular biology of viral infections in xenotransplantation and on the microbiome in solid organ transplantation. He directs NIH-supported mechanistic studies of samples derived from clinical studies of novel immunosuppressive regimens including monocyte-macrophage function (with Joseph El-Khoury, MD), B-cell biology (with Anoma Nellore at University of Alabama), and metagenomics in microbial diagnosis in transplant recipients. His team is developing studies of the risks for infection after clinical xenotransplantation using metagenomics, unbiased transcriptomics, metabolomics, and proteomics (with Brendan Keating, University of Pennsylvania).  

Jacob Rosenberg, MD, PhD 

Dr. Jacob Rosenberg is an instructor in the Mass General Division of Infectious Diseases and Harvard Medical School. He is currently investigating host-directed therapies for the treatment of mycobacterial infections. He has additional clinical interests in preventing infectious complications in patients with substance abuse disorders. His prior work includes studies on the role of anti-cytokine autoantibodies in primary immunodeficiencies as well as targeted therapies for patients with primary immunodeficiencies. 

Learn more about the Rosenberg Lab 

Sarah Hammond, MD 

Dr. Sarah Hammond is a clinician and clinical researcher with an interest in infections in the transplant and hematologic malignancy populations with a focus on fungal infections. Her clinical observations inspire research questions about emerging infectious complications of novel immunomodulatory therapies and optimal approaches to care. She has performed many retrospective studies and served as site principal investigator for multiple industry sponsored trials of novel antifungals. These studies allow for vulnerable patient populations to have access to novel therapies, and allows trainees to participate in clinical investigation while contributing to knowledge regarding the role of new antifungal agents. Other recent areas of interest and investigation include hepatitis B reactivation in allogeneic stem cell transplant recipients and patients treated with ibrutinib as well as common and uncommon bacterial infections in patients with febrile neutropenia (e.g., Streptococcus mitis and Clostridia species).   

Camille Kotton, MD 

Dr. Camille Nelson Kotton is the clinical director of the Transplant Infectious Disease and Immunocompromised Host Program at Mass General and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is a member of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and is involved in national decisions regarding COVID-19 vaccines. Her clinical and research interests include cytomegalovirus, vaccination of the immunocompromised host, zoonoses, and travel and tropical medicine in the transplant setting.   

Peter Ankomah, MD 

Dr. Peter Ankomah uses a systems biology approach to probe the intersection between microbial population dynamics and host immune responses and investigate how these factors affect the clinical course of infections in both immunocompetent and immunocompromised hosts. His team is using single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) to profile peripheral blood mononuclear cells from a clinical cohort of sepsis patients. ScRNA-seq’s enhanced cellular resolution allows the characterization of the abundance and kinetics of immune cell types and transcriptional subsets, including those of novel transcriptional states, to gain a better understanding of sepsis immunopathogenesis. Clinical activities are focused on infections in transplant/compromised hosts and hematology/oncology patients.  

Eric Rosenberg, MD 

The Clinical Microbiology Laboratory at Mass General, led by Dr. Eric Rosenberg, uses cutting-edge methods to diagnosis infectious diseases of humans. Although classical microbiology has undergone transformative changes resulting in faster and more accurate diagnoses, there remains a critical need to further improve our diagnostic capability directly from primary specimens. To do this, the laboratory is involved in the development of novel methods to detect volatile organic compounds directly from primary specimens. 

Learn more about the Rosenberg Lab 

Arthur Kim, MD 

Dr. Arthur Kim is the director of the Viral Hepatitis Clinic in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Mass General and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kim has a longstanding interest in viral hepatitis in special populations and more recently COVID-19. Dr. Kim has served as member and co-chair of the AASLD/IDSA committee that provides online guidance for HCV. He is currently serves on committees for Guidelines for the Use of Antiretroviral Agents in Adults and Adolescents with HIV and the NIH COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines. Dr. Kim also has many years of experience with inpatient transplant infectious disease and the hematology/oncology infectious disease service. His research interests include therapeutics for chronic viruses such as HBV and HCV, the immunopathogenesis of these infections, and outcomes of viral diseases in special populations, including people who inject drugs, people living with HIV, and persons who are immunocompromised. Dr. Kim co-directs the Clinical Research Unit of the MGH Infectious Disease Division.

Poznansky Lab 

The Poznansky Lab, led by Mark Poznansky, MD, PhD, aims to explore novel mechanisms in immunology that reveal new therapeutic approaches for cancer, infectious, and immune mediated diseases. The lab’s research focus is to discover novel immune mechanisms that can be leveraged for therapeutic purposes. 

Learn more about the Poznansky Lab 

Mansour Laboratory 

The Mansour Lab, led by Michael Mansour, MD, is an NIH funded lab investigating host-pathogen responses. It conducts basic and translational research investigating the critical molecular mechanisms responsible for host immune responses to life-threatening fungal pathogens. 

Learn more about the Mansour Lab 

Joseph El Khoury, MD 

The El Khoury Laboratory, led by Dr. El Khoury, investigates the role of the innate immune system in neurodegeneration, inflammation and host defense against infectious pathogens. 

Learn more about the El Khoury Lab 

Microbiology Laboratory 

The Microbiology Laboratory processes over 500,000 specimens per year and is open 24 hours a day to accession and process specimens. The specialized services include highly developed test menus in bacteriology, virology, parasitology, mycobacteriology, mycology, and infectious diseases serology. In addition to conventional culture and microscopic methods, the laboratory offers several rapid diagnostic tests and detection of difficult-to-culture pathogens using molecular methods. 

Learn more about the Microbiology Lab