Jeanne M. Marrazzo, MD, has been named as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She is currently the director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is expected to begin her role as NIAID director this fall, replacing Anthony S. Fauci, MD, who stepped down as NIAID director in 2022.

As NIAID director, Marrazzo will oversee NIAID’s budget of $6.3 billion, which supports research to advance the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of infectious, immunologic and allergic diseases. NIAID supports research at universities and research organizations around the United States and across NIAID’s 21 laboratories, including the Vaccine Research Center on NIH’s main campus in Bethesda, Maryland, and the Rocky Mountains Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana.

NIAID also has a unique mandate to respond to emerging and reemerging public health threats at home and abroad. The NIAID research response to outbreaks of infectious diseases, including HIV, Ebola and COVID-19, has led to new therapies, vaccines, diagnostic tests and other technologies.

Marrazzo’s research in discovery and implementation science has focused on the human microbiome, specifically as it relates to female reproductive tract infections and hormonal contraception; prevention of HIV using biomedical interventions, including pre-exposure prophylaxis and microbicides; and the pathogenesis and management of bacterial vaginosis, sexually transmitted infections in people living with HIV and management of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea.

She has been a principal investigator on NIH grants continuously since 1997 and has served frequently as a peer reviewer and advisory committee member. Marrazzo also has served as a mentor to trainees at all stages of professional development, including on NIH-funded training grants, and was the recipient of the American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association’s Distinguished Career Award, the highest recognition of contributions to research and mentoring in the field.