Nadine Rouphael, MD, MSc, professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Disease at Emory University School of Medicine, has been named executive director of the Hope Clinic, the clinical research arm of the Emory Vaccine Center.

At the Hope Clinic, Rouphael has been instrumental in vaccine, immunology and therapeutics studies and Hope Clinic principal investigator for the nationwide phase III study of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Moderna. She was also part of recent studies of therapeutic agents against COVID-19, and in ongoing studies of the immune response and outcomes in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

She has been interim director of the Hope Clinic since 2018, and the principal investigator for the Emory Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit (VTEU). She is the Director of the Clinical Core of the Stanford/Emory Human Immunology Project Consortium at the Hope Clinic, and Associate Director of the Vaccinology T32 training program. In addition, she serves as an attending on the Infectious Diseases inpatient consult services at Emory University Hospital at Emory University Hospital Midtown, and the outpatient infectious disease clinic at Emory University Hospital Midtown. Originally from Lebanon, Rouphael attended medical school at Saint Joseph University School of Medicine in Beirut.

“Dr. Rouphael has an outstanding record of scholarship, service, and leadership in building our nationally recognized translational vaccinology and therapeutic clinical trials program at the Hope Clinic,” says Rafi Ahmed, PhD, director of Emory Vaccine Center and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Vaccine Research.

“Dr. Rouphael and our talented Hope Clinic team of faculty and research staff have been critical to establishing a nationally recognized clinical and translational vaccinology and therapeutic clinical trial program here at Emory, including making pivotal contributions to development of COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines,” says David Stephens, MD, chair of the Department of Medicine and Vice President for Research at the Woodruff Health Sciences Center. “Under Dr. Rouphael’s leadership as Executive Director of the Hope Clinic, we expect to continue conducting the highest level of cutting-edge clinical and translational infectious diseases research.”

The Hope Clinic was established in 2002 in downtown Decatur, GA and in 2013 moved to a larger laboratory and clinical space near Emory Decatur Hospital. The Hope Clinic conducts human research studies of public health importance, including research on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, Clostridium difficile, Staphylococcus aureus, seasonal and pandemic influenza, norovirus, Zika, human papilloma virus and Ebola. Research support for the Hope Clinic comes from the federal government, biomedical industry, the Georgia Research Alliance, university resources and philanthropic contributions.