Jeanne Marrazzo has been selected to lead the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The institute, with a budget of $6.3 billion, was previously led by Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Dr. Marrazzo is currently director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her work has focused on female reproductive tract infections and hormonal contraception, prevention of HIV, and antibiotic resistance in gonorrhea.
“Dr. Marrazzo brings a wealth of leadership experience from leading international clinical trials and translational research, managing a complex organizational budget that includes research funding and mentoring trainees in all stages of professional development,” said NIH interim director Lawrence Tabak.
Dr. Fauci, in an interview on CNN, stated that “what she’s facing now is going to be a very complicated issue of a number of emerging diseases, a high degree of advanced technology that is really an important part of the research effort on infectious diseases. Also, she’s going to be dealing with, unfortunately, as we’ve seen over the last few years, a very divisive political setting, where there’s been an unfortunate politicization of some of the science.”
Dr. Marrazzo joined the faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2016 after teaching at the University of Washington. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Harvard University and her medical degree at what is now Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.