David I. Bernstein

Dr. Bernstein attended medical school at the State University of Buffalo and then did a pediatric residency at the University Southern California in Los Angeles and the New England Medical Center in Boston. During his infectious diseases fellowship at UCLA he became interested in vaccines and antivirals. He moved to Cincinnati in 1983 and began his work studying rotavirus infections and vaccines as well as herpes virus infections. During this time, teaming with Dr. Richard Ward, he developed a rotavirus vaccine that eventually became Rotarix, a vaccine used around the world. Dr. Bernstein has been the principal investigator for the NIH contract to study vaccines and antivirals for the treatment of herpes virus infections in animal models since 1990. During this time, he refined the guinea pig model of genital HSV. Uniquely, he has also been the principal investigator for the NIH funded contract to evaluate vaccines and treatments (VTEU) in clinical trials. As a clinical investigator he has performed several trials of both prophylactic and therapeutic HSV vaccines. Dr. Bernstein ascended the ranks and became a Professor and the Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC). He has published over 300 manuscripts and numerous chapters focused on vaccines and antivirals.