ReachMD

Dr. Patrick M. Schlievert is a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Prior to coming to the University of Minnesota as a faculty member in 1980, he was a faculty member at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Schlievert has over 350 manuscripts published in the area of microbial pathogenesis and management of microbial infections. He has served for many years as a member of numerous NIH Study Sections, most recently as chair of Immunity and Host Defense Study Section. He is a distinguished University of Minnesota Teaching Professor, which is the University's highest honor in teaching, for his teaching of microbiology and immunology to Medical Students. Dr. Schlievert is on the executive board of the Great Lakes Regional Center of Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases. He is the recipient of numerous NIH funded grants and has numerous awarded and pending patents

Dr. Schlievert and his clinical colleagues have described 16 newly recognized and emerging bacterial diseases, including characterization of how these diseases occur and how to manage them clinically. For example, he identified the predominant exotoxin cause of staphylococcal toxic shock syndrome in 1980, and he and his colleagues were the first to describe streptococcal toxic shock syndrome in 1987, otherwise known as the flesh eating streptococcal disease that killed Muppeteer Jim Henson. Most recently, Dr. Schlievert has been working to develop topical microbicides that interfere with microbial infections originating at the vaginal mucosal surface. He has presented many of his findings over the years to news organizations, including national and international newspapers and magazines and television shows.