syringeSpecialty Areas of Research

We take pride in the success of our independent research endeavors. They focus on a variety of infectious diseases including respiratory, tick-borne and fungal infections.

Respiratory Infectious Diseases 
We are involved in national and international respiratory infectious disease studies including:

  • Burden of influenza in infants in developing countries.
  • Influenza among pediatric intensive care unit patients.
  • RSV vaccine trials among older adults and in pregnant women.

Tick-borne Diseases
Researchers in IRDL are leading studies to better prevent and treat highly endemic tick-borne
infections such as Lyme disease, babesiosis and anaplasmosis through:

  • Development of molecular assays for the detection of tick-borne agents.
  • Assessing risks of tick-borne infections among agricultural workers.

Fungal Diseases
Blastomycosis is a rare sometimes fatal fungal disease highly endemic to our service area. We conduct research to improve patient outcomes by studying:

  • Genetic variability among strains of Blastomyces dermatitis the fungus responsible for blastomycosis infection.
  • Clinical phenotypes of blastomycosis infections among adult and pediatric patients.