Dr. Kurtis is a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Brown University, Rhode Island Hospital with subspecialty training in Transfusion Medicine and Coagulation. He has studied schistosomiasis and malarial immunity since 1993 and participated in field-based data collection in the Philippines, China, Tanzania, Kenya, and Brazil. Recently, Dr. Kurtis has led a complex longitudinal study of protective immunity and morbidity in schistosomiasis that has made significant discoveries in areas of cognitive impairment, anemia, nutritional status, hepatic fibrosis, pubertal development and protective immunity.

Dr. Kurtis is an internationally recognized expert in immuno-epidemiology and vaccine development for infectious diseases. Dr. Kurtis pioneered the differential, whole proteome screening method to identify antigens associated with resistance to human falciparum malaria and is currently leading R01-funded projects utilizing this method to identify vaccine candidates for pediatric malaria and S. japonicum.