Lara A. Danziger-Isakov, MD, MPH to co-chair Mentoring and Training Key Function Committee
Dr. Danziger-Isakov is a professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati and the director of the Immunocompromised Host Infectious Disease Service at Cincinnati Children’s. She has served as a member of the Mentoring & Training Key Function Committee (KFC) since its inception.
“We could not have found a better replacement - Lara has been there from the very beginning, leading the IDCRC Mentoring Lecture Series. We are excited to expand her role within the IDCRC,” says Kathy Neuzil, MD, IDCRC PI and Leadership Group co-chair.
She specializes in treating infections for a variety of patient populations, including those who have received solid organ transplants and hematopoietic stem cell transplants, immunocompromised patients and patients undergoing treatment for various cancers. Many of the infections she studies are viral or fungal in nature.
Her research focuses on understanding the impact of host-pathogen interactions. She has been the protocol chair for three clinical trials supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). These trials evaluated how the immune system responds to infection and, later, how that impacts graft survival in pediatric transplantation. They also examined the impact of B-cell induction and the barriers to treatment adherence. In the Studies in Pediatric Liver Transplantation (SPLIT) study, she acts as principal investigator for the evaluation of cytomegalovirus (CMV) prophylaxis.
She also researches infectious disease epidemiology and risk factors, as well as immunization safety and efficacy in immunocompromised pediatric patients. This includes her role as principal investigator for an ongoing multicenter study of live viral vaccination after solid organ transplantation.
As a result of her work, she received the 2012 American Society of Transplantation Clinical Science Career Development Award. She has served as a board member, secretary, annual meeting program chair and, most recently, serves as the president for the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation.
She is the past chair for the Infectious Disease Community of Practice (IDCOP) for the American Society of Transplantation, and from 2018-2020, worked as the deputy editor of the American Journal of Transplantation.
