Expertise
Sexually Transmitted Infections (Primarily Gonorrhea)
Bio
Cynthia Nau Cornelissen is the director of the Center for Translational Immunology. Her major research interests are in bacterial pathogenesis and vaccine development against the sexually-transmitted pathogen Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Notable achievements include identification of key virulence factors that contribute to the pathogenesis of N. gonorrhoeae. Her laboratory has been continuously funded since 1996. She has served on the Committee for Graduate and Postdoctoral Education for the American Society for Microbiology for 15 years, six of which she served as the committee chair. She has been on the editorial board for Infection and Immunity since 1997 and was a chartered member of the NIH study section Bacterial Pathogenesis. She has been awarded a number of teaching awards for teaching both medical and graduate students. She has trained over 17 graduate students in addition to a number of undergraduates and high school students as a faculty member and principal investigator.