Biography

Ravindra (Ravi) V. Durvasula, M.D., is chair of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Mayo Clinic in Florida. Dr. Durvasula is a world-renowned expert in infectious diseases with a focus on tropical parasitic diseases and emerging viral diseases such as Ebola, Zika and COVID-19. He has built NIH-funded Centers for Global Health that span four continents and support three-shield expertise in advancing patient care, education and research. He is a member of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. Dr. Durvasula obtained his medical degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and completed an internal medicine residency at Baylor College of Medicine. After serving as chief medical resident at Methodist Hospital in Houston, he completed his clinical training in infectious diseases at Yale School of Medicine and a postdoctoral research fellowship with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Durvasula has served on faculty at Yale School of Medicine, University of New Mexico, and Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago where he was the John W. Clarke Endowed Professor of Medicine and chair of the Department of Medicine.

Dr. Durvasula’s clinical interests include international medicine, tropical parasitic diseases, travel medicine and complex hospital-associated infections. Dr. Durvasula has been federally funded since 2001 and the Durvasula Lab has secured nearly $10 million in research funding. Focus areas of research include (1) paratransgenic strategies for control of malaria, Chagas disease and leishmaniasis; (2) molecular design and antibody engineering to target viral diseases such as Ebola, Zika and COVID-19; (3) drug discovery aimed at malaria, leishmaniasis and COVID-19; and (4) human therapeutics to modulate microbiome communities.

Dr. Durvasula has published nearly 200 manuscripts, book chapters and conference proceedings. He has edited five books and has multiple patents related to his research interests. In addition to RO1 grants from the NIH, Dr. Durvasula has served as principal investigator of several grants issued by the U.S. Department of Defense, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Durvasula Lab has trained over 75 people and maintains active research projects in Brazil, India, Kenya, Ghana and South Africa. Dr. Durvasula has also served on many NIH, Department of Defense and Burroughs Welcome Foundation Study Sections.