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John V. Williams, MD

  • Henry L. Hillman Professor
  • Director, Institute for Infection, Inflammation and Immunity for Children (i4Kids)

Administrative Assistant: Kathy Kotova

John V. Williams, MD, is Professor of Pediatrics, Microbiology & Molecular Genetics; Henry L. Hillman Professor of Pediatric Immunology; Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases; and Director, Institute for Infection, Inflammation, and Immunity in Children (i4Kids). Dr. Williams is an international expert on the epidemiology, immunity, and pathogenesis of respiratory viruses. The major focus of his research is human metapneumovirus (HMPV). His team described the epidemiology of HMPV, a leading cause of lower respiratory infection, and discovered that HMPV uses integrins as receptors to enter cells through endocytosis. His group discovered that HMPV and other respiratory viruses induce lung CD8+ T cell impairment via PD-1 signaling. Dr. Williams also leads CDC-funded surveillance studies of acute respiratory and gastrointestinal infections in children based at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. 

He completed his undergraduate education at Northern Virginia Community College and the University of Virginia and attended medical school at the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University. He trained in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh/University of Pittsburgh and completed fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. 

He has authored or co-authored >180 original articles about his research, which has been supported by the NIH and CDC. Dr. Williams is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Virology and Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society. He is an active mentor of graduate and medical students, residents, and fellows, and is a standing member of the NIH/NIAID MID-B Study Section. He has been recognized for his teaching and research accomplishments with the Society for Pediatric Research E. Mead Johnson Award, the Mary Ann and John Hash Award for Outstanding Teaching of Graduate Students in Microbiology and Immunology, the Caroline B. Hall Award for Translational Research from the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, and the Norman Siegel Award from the American Pediatric Society.

Professional and Scientific Society Memberships

  • American Society for Virology, Present  
  • Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, Present 
  • Infectious Diseases Society of America, Present 
  • American Society for Microbiology, Present 
  • Society for Mucosal Immunology, Present 
  • American Association of Immunologists, Present 
  • Society for Pediatric Research, 2006 
  • American Pediatric Society, 2020
  • Alpha Omega Alpha, 1993 

Education & Training

  • BS, University of Virginia, 1990
  • MD, Medical College of Virginia, 1994
  • Pediatric Internship/Residency, UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, 1997
  • Fellowship in Pediatrics, VUMC Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, 2003

Selected Publications

Freeman KG, Robotham AC, Parks OB, Abad L, Jacobs-Sera D, Lauer MJ, Podgorski JM, Zhang Y, Williams JV, White SJ, Kelly JF, Hatfull GF, Pope WH. Virion glycosylation influences mycobacteriophage immune recognition. Cell Host Microbe. 2023 Jul 12;31(7):1216-1231.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2023.05.028. Epub 2023 Jun 16. PMID: 37329881

O’Donnell C, Brownlee K, Martin E, Suyama J, Albert S, Anderson S, Bhatte S, Bonner K, Burton C, Corn M, Eng H, Flage B, Frerotte J, Balasubramani GK, Haggerty C, Haight J, Harrison LH, Hartman A, Hitter T, King WC, Ledger K, Marsh JW, McDonald MC, Miga B, Moses K, Newman A, Ringler M, Roberts M, Sax T, Shekhar A, Sterne M, Tenney T, Vanek M, Wells A, Wenzel S, Williams JV. SARS-CoV-2 Control on a Large Urban College Campus Without Mass Testing. J Amer College Health 2023 Jan 3:1-9. doi: 10.1080/07448481.2022.2153600. Online ahead of print. PMID: 36595575

Rankin DA, Spieker AJ, Perez A, Stahl AL, Rahman HK, Stewart LS, Schuster JE, Lively JY, Haddadin Z, Probst V, Michaels MG, Williams JV, Boom JA, Sahni LC, Staat MA, Schlaudecker EP, McNeal M, Harrison CJ, Weinberg GA, Szilagyi PG, Englund JA, Klein EJ, Gerber SI, McMorrow M, Rha B, Chappell JD, Selvarangan R, Midgley CM*, Halasa NB*, and the NVSN Network Investigators. Circulation of Rhinoviruses in Children with Acute Respiratory Illness Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the US. JAMA Netw Open. 2023 Feb 1;6(2):e2254909. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.54909. PMID: 36749589  

Parks OB, Eddens T, Zhang Y, Oury TD, McElroy AK, Williams JV. Human Metapneumovirus Reinfection in Aged Mice Recapitulates Increased Disease Severity in Elderly Humans Infected with Human Metapneumovirus. Immunohorizons. 2023 Jun 1;7(6):398-411. doi: 10.4049/immunohorizons.2300026. PMID: 37261717  

Rick AM, Lentscher A, Xu L, Wilkins MS, Nasser A, Tuttle DJ, Megli C, Marques ETA, McElroy AK, Williams JV, Martin JM. Impact of maternal SARS-CoV-2 booster vaccination on blood and breastmilk antibodies. PLoS One. 2023 Jun 13;18(6):e0287103. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0287103. eCollection 2023. PMID: 37310982

Srinivasa VR, Griffith MP, Waggle KD, Johnson M, Zhu L, Williams JV, Marsh JW, Van Tyne D, Harrison LH, Martin EM. Genomic Epidemiology of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Transmission Among University Students in Western Pennsylvania. J Infect Dis. 2023 Jun 28;228(1):37-45. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiad041. PMID: 36805719

Aguglia A, Coyne CB, Dermody TS, Williams JV, Culler Freeman MC. Contemporary Enterovirus-D68 Infects Human Spinal Cord Organoids. mBio 2023, in press.

Curns AT, Rha T, Lively JY, Sahni LC, Englund JA, Weinberg GA, Halasa NB, Staat MA, Selvarangan R, Michaels MG, Moline H, Zhou Y, Perez A, Rohlfs C, Hickey R, Lacombe K, McHenry R, Whitaker B, Schuster J, Guevara Pulido C, Strelitz B, Quigley C, Weddle G, Avadhanula V, Harrison CJ, Stewart LS, Schlaudecker EP, Szilagyi PG, Klein EJ, Boom JA, Williams JV, Langley GF, Gerber SI, Hall AJ, and McMorrow M. Respiratory Syncytial Virus-Associated Hospitalizations Among Children <5 Years Old: 2016-2020. Pediatrics 2023, in press.

Shope TR, Chedid K, Hashikawa AN, Martin ET, Sieber MA, Des Ruisseau G, Williams JV, Wheeler S, Johnson M, Stiegler M, D’Agostino H, Balasubramani GK, Wang-Erickson A. SARS-CoV-2 Surveillance in Child Care Centers. JAMA Network Open 2023, in press.

Parks OB, Eddens T, Sojati J, Lan J, Zhang Y, Oury TD, Ramsey M, Erickson JJ, Byersdorfer CA, Williams JV. Terminally exhausted CD8+ T cells contribute to age-dependent severity of respiratory virus infection. Immunity & Ageing 2023, in press.

Full Publication List via NIH PubMed

Academic and Research Interests

  • Human metapneumovirus
  • Respiratory syncytial virus
  • Respiratory virus vaccines
  • Respiratory virus immunology 

Research Grants

R01 AI085062-12, Host determinants of human metapneumovirus immunity and pathogenesis, 2010-2027.

U01 IP001052, New Vaccine Surveillance Network, 2021-2026. 

R01 AI158484, Role of Preexisting Immunity on Airborne Transmissions. 

Merck, Assessment of Otopathogens in Young Children with Acute Otitis Media.