Sarah Burgdorf, MD, PhD

Dr. Burgdorf completed her M.D./Ph.D. at UC San Diego with a dissertation that focused on the molecular virology of human cytomegalovirus. During her clinical training in internal medicine and infectious diseases, she was especially struck by the high morbidity and mortality associated with severe invasive bacterial infections and sepsis, often in the face of appropriate antibiotic therapy. This inspired her to expand upon her graduate training in molecular virology to bacterial host-pathogen interactions and experimental therapeutics during infectious diseases fellowship at UC-San Diego, where she explored the synergies between antibiotics and innate immunity in optimizing outcomes for Staphylococcus aureus and other resistant pathogens.

Her clinical interests include treatment of complicated and invasive bacterial infections such as multi-drug resistant bacterial infections and Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia. Dr. Burgdorf is also interested in the emergence of antibiotic resistance as a global problem and the use of novel therapeutics and antimicrobial stewardship as ways to combat this.