Overview

The Mayo Clinic Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases conducts discovery science and translational and clinical research to prevent, control and treat contagious diseases during pregnancy and in babies, children and adolescents. Areas of particular interest include COVID-19, health care-associated infections, tuberculosis, and infectious disease exposure and prevention before and during birth.

Clinical areas of research interest include but are not limited to:

• Antimicrobial stewardship, including fluconazole prophylaxis and the reduction of broad-spectrum cephalosporin use in the neonatal intensive care unit.
• COVID-19 vaccine efficacy.
• Exposure to HIV during pregnancy, birth or infancy.
• Health care-associated and catheter-associated bloodstream infections.
• Health care-associated infections caused by antimicrobial-resistant bacteria.
• Infections in immunocompromised children, including severe lower respiratory tract infections and viral pneumonias.
• Infectious diseases during pregnancy, including COVID-19 and HIV.
• MRSA nasal swabs for vancomycin deescalation in pediatric patients.
• Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C).
• Neonatal immunity.
• Pediatric COVID-19.
• Pediatric tuberculosis.
• Transplant-associated infectious disease.

Additional areas of focus include:

• Analysis and improvement of the quality of health care for children.
• Medical education research, including curriculum innovation and learner autonomy.

The division participates in national multicenter clinical studies and trial networks, including the Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigators (PALISI) trial network and a national project benchmarking outpatient antibiotic prescribing for upper respiratory tract infections.