Katherine Luzuriaga

Katherine Luzuriaga, MD, is the UMass Memorial Health Care Chair in Biomedical Research, Professor of Molecular Medicine, and Vice Provost for Clinical and Translational Research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS). She is a pediatric infectious disease physician, whose research has led to the development of new prevention and treatment strategies for pediatric HIV-1 infection and informed global treatment guidelines and policies. As Director of the UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science, Luzuriaga leads efforts to translate scientific discoveries into products and approaches that improve individual and population health.

From 2009-2017, Luzuriaga served as Founding Director of the UMMS Office of Global Health, providing strategic oversight and operational support for the development of UMMS global health education and research programs. She has also led multiple collaborative health systems strengthening and workforce development projects in Liberia. With funding from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, UMMS partnered with the Liberian Ministry of Health and Liberian Post-Graduate Medical Council to develop laboratory capacity for Ebola molecular diagnosis during the 2013-2015 epidemic; additional funding from the US CDC has supported the establishment of public health laboratories aimed at stemming infectious disease outbreaks through surveillance, rapid diagnosis, and research.

Luzuriaga is a graduate of MIT, with SB and SM degrees in Applied Biology. After completing her medical studies at Tufts University School of Medicine, she did her residency training in pediatrics at the Boston Floating Hospital. She then completed a clinical and research fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Luzuriaga has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization, as a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on the Perinatal Transmission of HIV, and in several leadership positions with the NIH-funded International Maternal Pediatric and Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials (IMPAACT) network. She currently serves on the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Advisory Board, the American Foundation for AIDS Research Program Advisory Committee, and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Boston University Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Luzuriaga received a Scholar Award and an Elizabeth Glaser Scientist Award from the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and is an elected Fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America and the American Academy of Microbiology. Named to the 2013 TIME 100 Most Influential People and the 2013 Foreign Policy Global Thinkers lists, Luzuriaga is particularly passionate about communicating to policy makers and the public the importance of scientific investigation for improving health.