American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene Awards Dr. Miriam Laufer the LePrince Medal for Malaria Research

Dr. Miriam Laufer Has Dedicated Her Career to Malaria Research

Miriam Laufer, MD, MPH, Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Director for Malaria Research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s  (UMSOM) Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD), was awarded the Joseph Augustin LePrince Medal by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH).

The ASTMH Joseph Augustin LePrince Medal is awarded every three years in recognition of outstanding work in the field of malariology. It was first awarded in 1951 to LePrince, whose initial work in the early 1900s and during World War II helped set the stage for research in practical mosquito control measures. Since inception, the medal has been awarded 22 times to leading experts in the field of malaria research and intervention.

Dr. Laufer, who leads UMSOM’s malaria research program, is a pediatric infectious disease specialist with a primary research interest in malaria and global child health. She has more than 15 years of experience in conducting epidemiological and translational research with a focus on translating scientific discovery into clinically relevant strategies to improve the health of people living in malaria-endemic countries. Much of her work, witgh more than $4 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, has focused on developing new strategies to prevent malaria and tackling the burden of malaria among school-age children. She leads a team of dynamic and world-renowned researchers who work towards accelerating malaria elimination. The medal was awarded on Oct. 28 during a ceremony at the ASTMH’s annual meeting in New Orleans.

“Miriam Laufer has dedicated her career toward combating malaria, a disease that affects hundreds of millions of people each year, mostly children in low-resource settings,” said Kathleen Neuzil, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics and Director of CVD.  “She is most-deserving of this prestigious award.”

“Dr. Laufer’s research has been instrumental in better understanding and controlling malaria, a disease that impacts the most vulnerable individuals,” said UMSOM Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, who is also the Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor.

Dr. Laufer received her medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania and completed her residency in pediatrics at Babies and Children’s Hospital of New York (now New York Children’s Hospital) of Columbia University. She completed fellowships in pediatric infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University and in malaria research at the Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Maryland. She received her MPH from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.

About the University of Maryland School of Medicine

Now in its third century, the University of Maryland School of Medicine was chartered in 1807 as the first public medical school in the United States. It continues today as one of the fastest growing, top-tier biomedical research enterprises in the world -- with 43 academic departments, centers, institutes, and programs; and a faculty of more than 3,000 physicians, scientists, and allied health professionals, including members of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, and a distinguished recipient of the Albert E. Lasker Award in Medical Research.  With an operating budget of more than $1 billion, the School of Medicine works closely in partnership with the University of Maryland Medical Center and Medical System to provide research-intensive, academic and clinically-based care for more than 1.2 million patients each year. The School has over 2,500 students, residents, and fellows, and more than $530 million in extramural funding, with most of its academic departments highly ranked among all medical schools in the nation in research funding. As one of the seven professional schools that make up the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus, the School of Medicine has a total workforce of nearly 7,000 individuals. The combined School and Medical System (“University of Maryland Medicine”) has an annual budget of nearly $6 billion and an economic impact more than $15 billion on the state and local community. The School of Medicine faculty, which ranks as the 8^th highest among public medical schools in research productivity, is an innovator in translational medicine, with 600 active patents and 24 start-up companies. The School works locally, nationally, and globally, with research and treatment facilities in 36 countries around the world. Visit medschool.umaryland.edu/

About the UMSOM Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health 

For over 40 years, researchers in the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health have worked domestically and internationally to develop, test, and deploy vaccines to aid the world’s underserved populations. CVD is an academic enterprise engaged in the full range of infectious disease intervention from basic laboratory research through vaccine development, pre-clinical and clinical evaluation, large-scale pre-licensure field studies, and post-licensure assessments. CVD has worked to eliminate vaccine-preventable diseases. CVD has created and tested vaccines against cholera, typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever, non-typhoidal salmonella disease, shigellosis (bacillary dysentery), Escherichia coli diarrhea, nosocomial pathogens, tularemia, influenza, and other infectious diseases.

CVD’s research covers the broader goal of improving global health by conducting innovative, leading research in Baltimore and around the world. CVD researchers are developing new and improved ways to diagnose, prevent, treat, control, and eradicate diseases of global impact. Currently, these diseases include malaria, typhoid, shigella and vaccine-preventable infectious diseases. CVD researchers have been involved in critical vaccine development for emerging pathogens such as Zika and Ebola. In addition, CVD’s work focuses on the ever-growing challenge of anti-microbial resistance.