Rate My Professor Julie McElrath

Dr. Julie McElrath, MD, PhD, serves as Senior Vice President and Director of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, holding the Joel D. Meyers Endowed Chair. She is a Professor in the Immunology and Vaccine Development Program and Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutch, as well as Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington, and Adjunct Professor in the Departments of Global Health and Laboratory Medicine & Pathology there. She earned her PhD in 1978 and MD in 1980 from the Medical University of South Carolina, and her BS from Furman University. Since the early 1980s, Dr. McElrath has been at the forefront of HIV research as an infectious disease physician and clinical researcher, overseeing international collaborative cohort and vaccine studies.

Her laboratory employs multi-disciplinary approaches to advance HIV-1 vaccine development globally, focusing on human immune responses that control and prevent HIV infection. Key areas include innate immune mechanisms post-vaccination, HIV entry into genital tract epithelial cells, protective roles of mucosal immune cells, and studies of individuals repeatedly exposed to HIV without infection and long-term non-progressors. As Principal Investigator and Director of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network Laboratory Center—the largest international HIV vaccine testing program—and Director of the Seattle Vaccine Trials Unit, she develops predictive assays for vaccine efficacy to prioritize promising candidates for clinical trials. Dr. McElrath also leads efforts in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery and NIH consortia for vaccines against malaria, tuberculosis, and coronaviruses like COVID-19. Spearheading division-wide research against microbial threats and for better outcomes in chronic infections and cancer, her work has profoundly influenced global HIV prevention strategies. In 2013, she received the Puget Sound Business Journal's Women of Influence Award.