Prof. Dr. Sheila A. Lukehart

Professor of Medicine & Global Health, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, USA

Sheila Lukehart is Professor of Medicine and Global Health, and Adjunct Professor of Microbiology at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Biology at the University of California, San Diego, and her PhD in Microbiology & Immunology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Following postdoctoral training in Immunopathology at UCSD, she moved to the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Washington, where she joined the faculty. She served as Associate Dean for Research & Graduate Education in the UW School of Medicine from 2003-2018. Dr Lukehart is a recognized expert on syphilis and Treponema pallidum, and has been actively funded by the National Institutes of Health for nearly 40 years. She was awarded the 2007 Distinguished Career Award from the American Sexually Transmitted Disease Association in recognition of her contributions to STD research, and the inaugural Award for Scientific Advancement from the Association for Women in Science. She has served on multiple NIH review committees and is currently chair of the Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Review Committee B at NIAID.

Dr. Lukehart has focused her research on the molecular pathogenesis of syphilis and the host immune responses to Treponema pallidum. Although her work is largely laboratory-based, she has conducted several clinically relevant investigations, most notably on neurosyphilis, syphilis-HIV interactions, and antibiotic resistance in T. pallidum. She has published over 130 scientific papers, numerous chapters and reviews, and has co-edited a book on Molecular Biology and Pathogenesis of Treponemal Infections. In addition, Dr. Lukehart is actively involved in the training of young STD scientists as the Program Director for the University of Washington STD & AIDS Research Training Program. She is married and has two children.