Anita K. McElroy, MD, PhD

Associate Professor of Pediatrics and member of the Center for Vaccine Research at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. McElroy is a practicing pediatric infectious disease physician. The focus of Dr. McElroy’s research is on immunity and pathogenesis of emerging viral infections. She is interested in understanding how host immunity can be both useful and detrimental to the host following viral infection.

Dr. McElroy studies host-pathogen interactions utilizing several different in vitro and in vivo model systems to understand the molecular basis of normal and aberrant host immune responses. She served on the WHO DSMB for Ebola therapeutics as well as the WHO working group on clinical trial design for RVFV therapeutics and vaccines. She is an elected member of the Society for Pediatric Research and has served on several Pediatric Infectious Disease Society committees. She has served on Vir B, VPI and as a P01 NIH study section reviewer. She has served as an Associate Editor of PLOS NTD and Journal of Infectious Disease. Dr. McElroy trains graduate students as a faculty member in the Program for Microbiology and Immunology. She leads a small group in the Medical Microbiology class for medical students and teaches students, residents and fellows during inpatient service weeks.

Professional and Scientific Society Memberships 

• American Society for Microbiology, 2000-present​
• American Academy of Pediatrics, 2007-present  
• Pediatric Infectious Disease Society, 2016-present 
• Infectious Disease Society of America, 2016-present 
• American Society of Virology, 2017-present