Cornelia L. Dekker, M.D.

Clinical Focus

• Pediatric Infectious Disease
• Vaccine Clinical Trials
• Vaccine Safety
• Infectious Diseases, Pediatric

Administrative Appointments

• Medical Director, Stanford-LPCH Vaccine Program (1999 - present)
• Member, National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) (2005 - 2010)
• Member, NVAC H1N1 Subgroup (2009 - present)
• Member, NVAC Vaccine Safety Working Group (2008 - 2010)
• Co-chair, NVAC Subcommittee on Vaccine Development and Supply (2005 - 2008)
View All 14administrative appointments of Cornelia Dekker

Honors and Awards

• Junior Faculty Award, SmithKlein Beecham (07/05/00-07/04/02)
• Excellence in Teaching, Stanford Univ. School of Medicine (06/23/08)

Professional Education

Postdoctoral Advisees

Barbara Pahud

Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations

• Medicine
• Infectious Diseases
• Pediatrics

Web Site Links

• Vaccine Program Web site

Research Interests

The overarching theme of our research activities is human response to natural virus infection and to vaccines. We have conducted several studies of adult, toddler and infant immune response to initial infection with human cytomegalovirus (HCMV). Our latest is a large-scale project in which we have screened 20,000 newborn infants at Stanford, El Camino and Santa Clara Valley Hospitals for evidence of congenital HCMV infection. Those infants identified as being infected are enrolled into a 3-year prospective study for medical, audiology and immunology screening. The hearing screening portion is designed to identify, as early as possible, infants who develop sensorineural hearing loss as a result of this infection.

A second area of clinical research is supported by Dr. Ann Arvin and Dr. Mark Davis' NIH-funded U19 project entitled "Protective Mechanisms Against Pandemic Respiratory Virus". To support the lab projects we immunize children and adults (including elderly)with one of two different, licensed influenza vaccines to study in detail the immune response to immunization. The two vaccine preparations are live, attenuated influenza vaccine given intranasally, and inactivated vaccine given intramuscularly. Blood samples collected from study subjects are analyzed for traditional antibody, B-cell Elispot, CD4 and CD8 T-cell responses and NK-cell responses by Stanford collaborators.

Our group also is funded as part of the Vaccine Treatment and Evaluation Units by NIH through our collaborators at Vanderbilt University. We are conducting studies of avian and seasonal influenza vaccines and a new malaria vaccine.

A fourth area of interest is vaccine safety. Stanford is one of six designated Centers for Immunization Safety Assessment (CISA) sponsored by the CDC. The network provides consultation to CDC on evaluation and treatment of adverse events following immunization with licensed vaccines, develops protocols to study certain...

Publications

• Adolescent vaccination: recommendations from the National Vaccine Advisory Committee. Stokley S, Freed G, Curtis R, Gordon L, Humiston S, Parnell T, Pavia A, Young A, Johnson D, Kennedy A, Hopfensperger D, Markowitz L, Fergie J, Koslap-Petraco MB, McCauley M. Am J Prev Med. 2009; 36 (3): 278-9.e6
• Differential maternal responses to a newly developed vaccine information pamphlet. Klein NP, Kissner J, Aguirre A, Sparks R, Campbell S, Edwards KM, Dekker CL, Shui I, Gust DA. Vaccine. 2009
• Safety and immunogenicity of inactivated, Vero cell culture-derived whole virus influenza A/H5N1 vaccine given alone or with aluminum hydroxide adjuvant in healthy adults. Keitel WA, Dekker CL, Mink C, Campbell JD, Edwards KM, Patel SM, Ho DY, Talbot HK, Guo K, Noah DL, Hill H. Vaccine. 2009; 27 (47): 6642-8
• One step closer to a CMV vaccine. Dekker CL, Arvin AM. N Engl J Med. 2009; 360 (12): 1250-2
• An algorithm for treatment of patients with hypersensitivity reactions after vaccines. Wood RA, Berger M, Dreskin SC, Setse R, Engler RJ, Dekker CL, Halsey NA. Pediatrics. 2008; 122 (3): e771-7