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Igho Ofotokun, MD, MSc, FIDSA (he/him/his)

Grady Distinguished Professor of Medicine
Emory University School of Medicine
Lilburn, GA, United States

Dr. Ofotokun is the Grady Distinguished Professor of Medicine with tenure at Emory University School of Medicine and Professor of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education at Emory University Rollins School of Public Health. He is a Staff Physician at Grady Memorial Health System, Associate Dean for Research Development, Emory University School of Medicine, Associate Division Director for Research, Emory University Infectious Diseases Division, and the Co-Director of the Emory Center for AIDS Research Clinical Core. He was recently elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Ofotokun is a creative clinician-scientist whose career is devoted to caring for individuals living with HIV and to combating the long-term sequelae of HIV among vulnerable populations. His research program has focused on the threat that age-related comorbidities pose to healthy aging in persons with HIV and the disproportionate burden in women. Adopting a clinical and translational research approach, he leads an innovative global research collaboration to understand the pathobiology of these phenomena, and has demonstrated that age-related comorbidities may be driven by disruption in the organ-immune interphase (an amenable target); the higher burden in women may relate to synergy between gonadal impairment and chronic inflammation. He was a leading member of the seminal and pivotal ACTG 5257 trial that contributed to the 2015 revision of the US HIV treatment guidelines to prioritize a drug class that is better tolerated by women, a class now recommended globally for first-line treatment by the World Health Organization.

Dr. Ofotokun has contributed substantially to the expanded representation of women and minorities in biomedical research, leveraging his expertise to promote research education and training at Emory University and across the globe (Nigeria, Ethiopia, Georgia, Vietnam). As an advocate for equitable representation in the biomedical workforce, he has briefed congressional staff, advised NIH leadership, Africa CDC, and African governments on multiple occasions. Drawing on his HIV experience, he leads the Atlanta hub of the NIH initiative, Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) aimed at understanding the long-term post-acute-sequelae of COVID-19.

At Emory, Dr. Ofotokun serves as the administrative PI of the MACS/WIHS Combined Cohort Study, the Director of Emory Specialized Center of Research Excellence (SCORE) in Sex Differences, the Co-Director of the Georgia CTSA KL2 Program, the Co-Director of Emory Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) and the Co-Director, Emory Stimulating Access to Research in Residency (StARR R38). He has served on the membership and/or leadership of several high-profile national and international committees including the FDA Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) Governing Board of Directors, the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA) Governing Board of Directors; as chair on NIH Study Section, the inaugural chair of the HIVMA Leadership Development Committee, the Taskforce for COVID-19 Vaccine, Nigeria Governors Forum, and the IDSA Leadership Institute Working Group.

He is the author of over 200 peer-reviewed original articles, editorial/review articles, books and chapters and a frequently invited speaker on topics ranging from HIV disease management and the pathogenesis of HIV-related end-organ damage to biomedical workforce development and team science. He has been a visiting professor to several prominent programs including the University of Michigan, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Washington University, St. Louis, Johns Hopkins University, Rush University, Chicago, the Nigeria Institute of Medical Research, Lagos, Nigeria, the Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara, Nigeria, and the Ethiopia-Emory D43 Research Training Program, Black Lion Teaching Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He is a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Dr. Ofotokun’s contributions have been recognized by multiple institutional and national awards, including the Emory Infectious Diseases Mentoring Award in 2010, the HIVMA National Research Award in 2013, the Emory Department of Medicine Silver Pear Mentorship Award in 2014, the Emory Department of Medicine Nanette K. Wenger Distinguished Service Faculty Award in 2017, the 2017 Emory Infectious Diseases Division Paul Beeson’s (life achievement) Award and the 2020 Emory Department of Medicine Alexander Wayne Research Excellence Award (the highest research award in the Department). In 2022, he was elected to the Emory University Woodruff Leadership Academic.

Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose

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