Division: Clinical and Experimental Immunology and Infectious Disease

Dr. Garofalo is Professor of Pediatrics, Microbiology and Immunology, Pharmacology and Toxicology.  He received his undergraduate degree from Maturita’ Classica, Liceo Ginnasio G. Carducci, Milano, Italy and his MD at the University of the Studies of Milano in Italy. He completed his residency in pediatrics at Istituto di Scienze Biomediche, Ospedal S. Paolo, University of the Studies of Milano and his postdoctoral fellowship in Infectious Disease at the Children’s Hospital, State University of New York at Buffalo.

He is Vice Chair for Research and Director of the Division of Clinical and Experimental Immunology & Infectious Disease, in the Department of Pediatrics at UTMB. He is a pediatrician-scientist with more than twenty years of NIH, NASA, and DoD-funded clinical, translational and basic research on bronchiolitis. Dr. Garofalo is internationally recognized for his work on respiratory syncytial virus, with expertise in murine models of paramyxovirus infections and mouse immunology. He has mentored disadvantaged and underrepresented minority, pre and post-baccalaureate students and has experience in heading multidisciplinary teams. As a pediatrician, his expertise and funded research is in the areas of lung mucosal immunology, pathogenesis of respiratory infections, and genetic and environmental determinants of airway pathophysiology in children. Using comprehensive proteomics approaches he has characterized a novel oxidative-driven pathway of airway inflammation in infants. He has also led research teams in the area of lung diseases, including one of the CTSA multidisciplinary translational teams at UTMB, and he is co-PI of the NIAID-funded Program Project “Signaling in Airway Inflammation”.  He was recently the Project Leader of NASA funded research “Effect of Spaceflight on Innate Immunity to Respiratory Viral Infections, Mouse Immunology-2”, from Space Shuttle Discovery, STS-133, and the Project Leader on NASA research tissue sharing project “Effect of Spaceflight on Lung Gene and Protein Expression Profiles” from the last mission of Space Shuttle Atlantis, STS-135