Ayesha Khan

Ayesha Khan is a clinical microbiologist and infectious diseases researcher. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology, Immunology, Molecular Genetics, and Global Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles in May 2015 and a Doctor of Philosophy in Infectious Diseases from UTHealth MD Anderson Cancer Center in May 2020. Between July 2022 and July 2024, Khan held the position of Clinical Microbiology Fellow in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Her academic interests encompass infectious diseases diagnostics, antibiotic resistance, antimicrobial susceptibility testing, decolonizing medicine and building collectivist community-led health systems, global health, rapid detection surveillance and treatment of multidrug-resistant pathogens, next-generation sequencing and clinical metagenomics, translating basic microbiology research to innovation in patient care, and diagnostic equity and accessibility for marginalized communities.

During her fellowship at Vanderbilt, Khan contributed to studies on clinical laboratory services, including price transparency and access to testing in Tennessee hospitals. Notable publications include 'Tennessee hospital noncompliance with price transparency legislation for 8 common laboratory tests' (American Journal of Clinical Pathology, 2024), 'Price Variability of Eight Common Laboratory Tests across All Licensed Tennessee Hospitals' (Applied Laboratory Medicine, 2025), 'Changes in Access to Comprehensive Clinical Microbiology Laboratory Testing in Tennessee From 2019-2024' (Open Forum Infectious Diseases, 2026), 'Bacteremia due to a rare opportunistic pathogen, Kluyvera intermedia, with atypical antimicrobial susceptibility in the absence of β-lactamases' (ASM Case Reports, 2025), 'Evaluation of two gradient diffusion tests to determine susceptibility to aztreonam and ceftazidime–avibactam in combination' (Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 2025), and 'Evaluation of piperacillin-tazobactam disks using contemporary Enterobacterales isolates suggests the need for disk potency optimization' (Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 2025). These contributions underscore her influence on advancing antimicrobial diagnostics and addressing healthcare access issues.