Wes Van Voorhis

Wes was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, and attended MIT as an undergraduate. He attended Cornell Medical College and Rockefeller University for his MD/Ph.D. where he was the first to discover and characterize human dendritic cells (antigen presenting accessory cells). His advisor, Dr. Ralph Steinman was recently awarded the Lasker Award for Dr. Steinman's discovery of dendritic cells. Wes spent time in Brazil during his graduate work working on leprosy and thereafter resolved to work on problems of global health importance. He trained in Internal Medicine at UC San Francisco. Wes is a Professor of Medicine and an Adjunct Professor of Pathobiology and Microbiology at the University of Washington. Wes practices medicine teaches does research on malaria, trypanosomes, leishmania, and syphilis, and administers the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Training Program. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers and won numerous academic awards.