Chief of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics and Vice Chair of Pediatric Research
University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Pediatrics/Division of Infectious Disease
University of North Carolina, 8340B MBRB, CB# 7509
111 Mason Farm Road
Chapel Hill,
NC
USA
27599-7509
lad@email.unc.edu
Biographical Sketch:
Dr. Toni Darville is currently the Chair of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Vice-Chair of Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. She has been conducting basic research studies on the immunology of Chlamydia trachomatis genital tract infection for 20 years, utilizing animal models of chlamydial infection to investigate disease pathogenesis and protective adaptive responses. This work has provided important data that has advanced vaccine design strategies against chlamydiae. She has expanded her work to human studies and is currently the Administrator and Project Leader for a NIH-sponsored Sexually Transmitted Infections Cooperative Research Center that focuses on prevention of female reproductive tract disease due to known and novel sexually transmitted pathogens. She is considered an expert in Chlamydia immunobiology and innate immunity and is globally renowned for her work on chlamydial disease. Her current work focuses on Chamydial PID has the potential to improve diagnostic measures to reduce real-time diagnostic imprecision.