Jeanne Marisa Marrazzo is an American physician-scientist and infectious diseases specialist. She was the director of the University of Alabama School of Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases and focused on prevention of HIV infection using biomedical interventions. Marrazzo is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and Infectious Disease Society of America. On August 2, 2023 Lawrence A. Tabak, acting director for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), named Jeanne M. Marrazzo as director of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Jeanne Marrazzo
Official portrait of Jeanne Marrazzo as director of NIAID
6th Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Assumed office
September 24, 2023
DeputyHugh Auchincloss
Preceded byAnthony Fauci
Personal details
EducationAB, Biology, 1984, Radcliffe College
MD, 1988, Jefferson Medical College
MPH, Epidemiology, 1994, University of Washington
Scientific career
FieldsInfectious dieseases
InstitutionsUniversity of Washington School of Medicine
University of Alabama at Birmingham
National Institutes of Health
Thesis Selective screening criteria for Chlamydia trachomatis infection in women attending Region X family planning and STD clincs: performance and cost-effectiveness  (1994)

Early life edit

Growing up in Dunmore, Pennsylvania,[1][2] Marrazzo chose to get into a career in medicine because her mother was a nurse and her role model.[3] She earned her undergraduate degree in biology from Radcliffe College and her medical degree from Jefferson Medical College. Marrazzo later completed residency training and chief residency in internal medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital.[4]

Career edit

Marrazzo joined the faculty at the University of Washington School of Medicine in 1995.[5] While there, she co-founded the Lesbian/Bisexual Women’s Health Study with nurse practitioner Kathleen Stine after noticing an unusual number of middle-aged women had abnormal Pap smears. The results of their findings secured them funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to investigate the prevalence and routes of transmission of various STDs among lesbian and bisexual women.[6] This led to a co-authored study titled Pap Smear Screening and Prevalence of Genital Human Papillomavirus Infection in Women Who Have Sex with Women, which found that out of 300 women in the Seattle area, 13 percent tested positive for HPV and 4 percent had pre-cancerous changes on a Pap test.[7] The following year, she was elected a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.[5]

In 2005, Marrazzo co-authored a study with David N. Fredricks and Tina L. Fiedler titled Molecular Identification of Bacteria Associated With Bacterial Vaginosis, which focused on the causes of bacterial vaginosis.[8] In 2008, Marrazzo was appointed a member of the Subspecialty Board on Infectious Disease by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM),[9] and four years later was named its chair.[10] During this time, Marrazzo was elected a Fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America and Bennett Lorber Visiting Professor at Temple University.[5] From 2009 until 2012, Marrazzo conducted the VOICE (Vaginal and Oral Interventions to Control the Epidemic) Study through the Microbicide Trials Network. The study was a randomized, placebo-controlled trial which examined the effects of daily use of oral tenofovir disoproxil fumarate had on over 5,000 women from 15 sites in South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe.[11] The final published paper failed to prove that oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) or of a tenofovir-containing vaginal microbicide gel was effective in lowering the risk of HIV.[12]

Considered an expert in the field of HIV prevention, Marrazzo was appointed a co-chair of an interdisciplinary panel of experts to create a guideline in achieving an AIDS-free generation. The guidelines, which were later published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, integrated evidence-based behavioral interventions for people with HIV or at high risk for HIV infection.[13] Her efforts in HIV prevention earned her the 2015 American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association (ASTDA) Achievement Award[14] and appointment to chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine Council.[15]

In 2016, Marrazzo succeeded Edward W. Hook, III as director of the University of Alabama School of Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases.[16] After stepping down as president of the International Society for STD Research, she was named to the Infectious Diseases Society of America board of directors.[17] On October 23, 2019, she was named principal investigator of a three-year $3.5 million grant study from NIAID to test the effectiveness of the Bexsero vaccine in protecting vulnerable populations from gonorrhea.[18] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Marrazzo studied whether blood clots could result in the spread of the virus through the human body.[19] She also oversaw clinical trials of remdesivir as a treatment against COVID-19 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.[20][21]

In August 2023, Marrazzo was named director of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), succeeding acting director Hugh Auchincloss.[22] A lesbian, she is the first member of the LGBT community to hold the position.[23]

Selected publications edit

  • Marrazzo, Jeanne M.; Ramjee, Gita; Richardson, Barbra A.; Gomez, Kailazarid; Mgodi, Nyaradzo; Nair, Gonasagrie; Palanee, Thesla; Nakabiito, Clemensia; van der Straten, Ariane; Noguchi, Lisa; Hendrix, Craig W.; Dai, James Y.; Ganesh, Shayhana; Mkhize, Baningi; Taljaard, Marthinette (2015-02-05). "Tenofovir-Based Preexposure Prophylaxis for HIV Infection among African Women". New England Journal of Medicine. 372 (6): 509–518. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1402269. ISSN 0028-4793. PMC 4341965. PMID 25651245.
  • Unemo, Magnus; Bradshaw, Catriona S; Hocking, Jane S; de Vries, Henry J C; Francis, Suzanna C; Mabey, David; Marrazzo, Jeanne M; Sonder, Gerard J B; Schwebke, Jane R; Hoornenborg, Elske; Peeling, Rosanna W; Philip, Susan S; Low, Nicola; Fairley, Christopher K (9 July 2017). "Sexually transmitted infections: challenges ahead". The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 17 (8): e235–e279. doi:10.1016/s1473-3099(17)30310-9. ISSN 1473-3099. PMID 28701272.
  • Van Gerwen, Olivia T.; Muzny, Christina A.; Marrazzo, Jeanne M. (2 August 2022). "Sexually transmitted infections and female reproductive health". Nature Microbiology. 7 (8): 1116–1126. doi:10.1038/s41564-022-01177-x. ISSN 2058-5276. PMC 9362696. PMID 35918418.

References edit

  1. ^ Horvath, Jeff (May 11, 2020). "Doctor, Dunmore native overseeing team in clinical trials of potential coronavirus teatment [sic]". The Times-Tribune. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
  2. ^ "Marrazzo, Casey Earn DHS Honors". Scrantonian Tribune. 1980-06-08. p. 4. Retrieved 2020-05-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "Women in Medicine Spotlight: Jeanne Marrazzo". uabmedicine.org. Archived from the original on March 12, 2020. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  4. ^ "Jeanne Marrazzo". revive.gardp.org. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  5. ^ a b c "JEANNE MARRAZZO Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). uab.edu. Retrieved May 22, 2020.[permanent dead link]
  6. ^ Neary, Walter (October 12, 1999). "Study examines STDs among women-to-women sex partners". washington.edu. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  7. ^ Neary, Walter (May 31, 2001). "Women should have regular Pap smears regardless of sex partner's gender". washington.edu. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  8. ^ Fredricks, David N.; Fiedler, Tina L.; Marrazzo, Jeanne M. (November 3, 2005). "Molecular Identification of Bacteria Associated with Bacterial Vaginosis". New England Journal of Medicine. 353 (18): 1899–1911. doi:10.1056/nejmoa043802. PMID 16267321.
  9. ^ "ABIM Announces Members Of Its Subspecialty Board On Infectious Diseases". abim.org. American Board of Internal Medicine. July 1, 2008. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  10. ^ "ABIM Elects Jeanne Marrazzo, MD, Chair Of Its Subspecialty Board on Infectious Diseases". abim.org. July 1, 2012. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  11. ^ "VOICE trial shows low PrEP adherence, efficacy among women". healio.com. February 5, 2015. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  12. ^ Cairns, Gus (February 9, 2015). "VOICE trial: Microbicide gel may have stopped two out of three HIV infections – in the women who used it". aidsmap.com. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  13. ^ Nodell, Bobbi (July 21, 2014). "AIDS-free generation is aim of new guidelines for clinicians". newsroom.uw.edu. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  14. ^ "Marrazzo and Wald receive recognition awards". medicine.uw.edu. October 14, 2015. Archived from the original on May 13, 2020. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  15. ^ "American Board of Internal Medicine Announces New Members and Officers on Board of Directors and Council". prleap.com. Press Release Distribution. July 6, 2015. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  16. ^ Alexander, Alan (March 7, 2016). "Top HIV/AIDS researcher recruited to UAB for leadership post". bizjournals.ca. Business Journal. Archived from the original on April 21, 2016. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  17. ^ Koplon, Savannah (October 9, 2018). "Marrazzo named to national infectious disease organization board". uab.edu. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  18. ^ Koplon, Savannah (October 23, 2019). "NIH study to explore vaccine for gonorrhea prevention". uab.edu. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  19. ^ Thompson, Dennis (April 21, 2020). "Could tiny blood clots make COVID-19 more lethal?". medicalxpress.com. Medical Xpress. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  20. ^ "Coronavirus patient in remdesivir drug trial says he left hospital "improving drastically"". CBS News. 2020-04-30. Archived from the original on 2023-05-24. Retrieved 2023-08-09.
  21. ^ "UAB: Moderna vaccine study is hopeful, study based on 8 patients' data". WTVY. 2020-05-19. Archived from the original on 2020-06-24. Retrieved 2023-08-09.
  22. ^ Goodman, Ben Tinker, Meg Tirrell, Brenda (2023-08-02). "New director named at National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases following Dr. Anthony Fauci's retirement". CNN. Retrieved 2023-08-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  23. ^ Ring, Trudy (August 4, 2023). "Lesbian and STI Expert Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo to Succeed Fauci at NIAID". www.advocate.com. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
Government offices
Preceded by Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
2023-present
Incumbent