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Terence S. Dermody, MD

  • Vira I. Heinz Distinguished Professor and Chair of Pediatrics
  • Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
  • Physician-in-Chief and Scientific Director, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh

Executive Assistant: Dominique White

Terence S. Dermody is the Vira I. Heinz Distinguished Professor and Chair of Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and physician-in-chief and scientific director at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh where he leads a team of over 350 faculty members. He also is professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Dermody received his B.S. degree from Cornell University and his M.D. degree from Columbia University. He completed an internal medicine residency at Presbyterian Hospital in New York and fellowships in infectious diseases and molecular virology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Prior to moving to Pittsburgh in 2016, Dermody was Dorothy Overall Wells Professor of Pediatrics and director of the Medical Scientist Training Program and Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

With over 36 years of experience in basic virology and viral pathogenesis research, at his core, Dermody is a virologist. Most of his research has focused on reovirus, an important experimental model for studies of viral encephalitis in the young. His research contributions have enhanced an understanding of how these viruses enter into host cells and cause organ-specific disease. He has published more than 280 articles, reviews, chapters, and editorials and has been recognized for his research accomplishments by the Vanderbilt Ernest W. Goodpasture Faculty Research Award, an NIH MERIT Award, and the American Society for Microbiology D. C. White Research and Mentoring Award.

Dermody is a member of the American Academy of Microbiology, American Pediatrics Society, American Society for Clinical Investigation, Association of American Physicians, and Society for Pediatric Research and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a past president of the American Society for Virology, past chair of the AAMC GREAT Group M.D.-Ph.D. Section Steering Committee, and past chair of the Virology Division of the International Union of Microbiological Societies. Dermody is an editor of the Annual Review of Virology. 

Professional and Scientific Society Memberships

  • American Society for Microbiology, 1987-Present
  • American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1991-Present
  • Infectious Disease Society of America, 1991-Present
  • American Society for Virology, 1992-Present
  • Pediatric Infectious Disease Society, 1992-Present
  • Association of Pediatric Program Directors, 1997-Present
  • Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs, 2016-Present

Education & Training

  • BS with Honors and Distinction, Cornell University, 1978
  • MD, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, 1982
  • Internship in Medicine, Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY, 1982-1983
  • Residency in Medicine, Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY, 1983-1984
  • Clinical Fellow in Infectious Diseases, Beth Israel Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Children’s Hospital, 1985-1986
  • Research Fellow in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, 1986-1988

Selected Publications

Barton, E. S., Forrest, J. C., Connolly, J. L., Chappell, J. D., Liu, Y., Schnell, F. J., Nusrat, A., Parkos, C. A., and T. S. Dermody. Junction adhesion molecule is a receptor for reovirus. Cell 104:441-451, 2001. PMID: 11239401

Ebert, D. H., Deussing, J., Peters, C., and T. S. Dermody. Cathepsin L and cathepsin B mediate reovirus disassembly in murine fibroblasts. J. Biol. Chem. 277:24609-24617, 2002. PMID: 11986312

Kobayashi, T., Antar, A. A. R., Boehme, K. W., Danthi, P., Eby, E. A., Guglielmi, K. M., Holm, G. H., Johnson, E. M., Maginnis, M. S., Naik, S., Skelton, W. B., Wetzel, J. D., Wilson, G. J., Chappell, J. D., and T. S. Dermody. A plasmid-based reverse genetics system for animal double-stranded RNA viruses. Cell Host Microbe. 1:147-157, 2007. PMCID: PMC2034303 [Featured article]

Kirchner, E., Guglielmi, K. M., Strauss, H., Dermody, T. S., and T. Stehle. Structure of reovirus s1 in complex with its receptor junctional adhesion molecule-A. PLoS Pathog. 4:e1000235, 2008. PMCID: PMC2588538 [Faculty of 1000 selection]

Antar, A. A. R., Konopka, J. L., Campbell, J. A., Henry, R. A., Perdigoto, A. L., Carter, B. D., Pozzi, A., Abel, T. W., and T. S. Dermody. Junctional adhesion molecule-A is required for hematogenous dissemination of reovirus. Cell Host Microbe. 5:59-71, 2009. PMCID: PMC2642927 [Featured in Issue Highlights] [Faculty of 1000 selection]

Konopka-Anstadt, J. L., Mainou, B. A., Sutherland, D. M., Sekine, Y., Strittmatter, S. M., and T. S. Dermody. The Nogo receptor NgR1 mediates infection by mammalian reovirus. Cell Host Microbe. 15:681-691, 2014. PMCID: PMC4100558 [Faculty of 1000 selection]

Bouziat, R., Hinterleitner, R., Brown, J. J., […], Dermody, T. S., and B. Jabri. Reovirus infection breaks tolerance to dietary antigens and promotes development of celiac disease. Science. 356:44-50, 2017. PMCID: PMC5506690 [Faculty of 1000 selection]

Knowlton, J. J., Fernández de Castro, I., Ashbrook, A. W., Gestaut, D. R., Zamora, P. F., Bauer, J. A., Forrest, J. C., Frydman, J., Risco, C., and T. S. Dermody. The TRiC chaperonin controls reovirus replication through outer-capsid folding. Nat. Microbiol. 3:481-493, 2018. PMCID: PMC5874176

Aravamudhan, P., Raghunathan, K., Konopka-Anstadt, J., Pathak, A., Sutherland, D. M., Carter, B. D., and T. S. Dermody. Reovirus uses macropinocytosis-mediated entry and fast axonal transport to infect neurons. PLoS Pathog. 16:e1008380, 2020. PMCID: PMC7065821

Knowlton, J. J., Gestaut, D. R., Ma, B., Taylor, G. M., Seven, A. B., Leitner, A., Wilson, G. J., Shankar, S., Yates, N., Prasad, B. V. V., Aebersold, R., Chiu, W., Frydman, J., and T. S. Dermody. Structural and functional dissection of reovirus capsid folding and assembly by the prefoldin-TRiC/CCT chaperone network. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 118:e2018127118, 2021. PMCID: PMC7980406

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Academic and Research Interests

  • Virology
  • Vaccine development
  • Infectious diseases
  • Reovirus
  • Virus receptors
  • Viral pathogenesis
  • Encephalitis