Catherine Blish, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford

Catherine Blish, MD, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Talia and John Morgridge Faculty Scholar in Pediatric Translational Medicine. She holds a joint appointment in Stanford Immunology, and is also the Assistant Director of the Stanford Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP). After receiving a BS in Biochemistry with Highest Honors from the University of California, Davis, she matriculated in the MSTP at the University of Washington School of Medicine, receiving her MD and PhD. Her thesis studies were focused on the development of T cell tolerance in a mouse model system. Dr. Blish remained in Seattle for residency in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Her postdoctoral research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center was focused on evaluating immune correlates of HIV-1 infection and re-infection. She moved to Stanford in late 2011, where her lab uses a systems immunology approach to develop new methods to prevent and control infectious diseases. Her studies are highly translational in nature, bringing comprehensive immune profiling techniques such as mass cytometry to clinical and epidemiologic studies of HIV, influenza, and pregnancy. She has received numerous awards for research and mentoring, including the Stanford Immunology Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award, the ICAAC Young Investigator Award from the American Society for Microbiology, the Beckman Young Investigator Award, the McCormick Faculty Award, the Baxter Faculty Scholar, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Clinical Scientist Development Award, and the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. She continues to practice medicine, and is board certified in Internal Medicine and in Infectious Diseases, and attends on the Infectious Diseases consult service at the Stanford University Hospital.