Oswald Avery Award

2021 Winner: Michail Lionakis, MD, ScD, FIDSA

Michail Lionakis, MD, ScD, FIDSA, a clinical investigator who has made multiple breakthroughs in fungal pathogenesis, is the recipient of IDSA’s 2021 Oswald Avery Award for Early Achievement. This honor recognizes members or fellows of IDSA age 45 or younger who have demonstrated outstanding achievements in an area of infectious diseases.

An outstanding physician-scientist, Dr. Lionakis is a senior investigator at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, where he is also chief of the Fungal Pathogenesis Section and deputy chief of the Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology. His research has identified novel genetic and immunologic factors that can explain susceptibility to fungal infections. This has included delineating the roles of CX3CR1, CCR1, CXCR1 and CARD9 in Candida pathogenesis in mice. These findings have important implications for Candida infection, for understanding innate immunity and for developing innovative therapies.

Dr. Lionakis’s work has also identified interferonopathy as the critical driver of mucosal candidiasis in patients with autoimmune polyendocrinopathy-candidiasis-ectodermal dystrophy. More recently, recognizing the need for novel approaches to the management of COVID-19, he has also provided leadership to a group assessing the inhibition of BTK-dependent NF-kB and inflammasome activation in macrophages on the progression of COVID-19. This work formed the basis for phase II and III trials of acalabrutinib.

The author of more than 160 articles in peer-reviewed publications and a global leader in his field, Dr. Lionakis has built a clinical program at NIH that is a magnet for young investigators and is rapidly expanding its scope and accomplishments. He has served on multiple committees at NIH and elsewhere and has received several honors, including the NIH Director’s Award and the NIAID Merit Award. IDSA is pleased to recognize him with the 2021 Oswald Avery Award for Early Achievement.

Past Oswald Avery Award Winners

2020	Sallie R. Permar, MD, PhD
2019	Nasia Safdar, MD, MS, PhD, FIDSA, FSHEA
2018	Susanna Naggie, MD, MHS, FIDSA
2017	William J. Steinbach, MD
2016	Susan S. Huang, MD, MPH, FIDSA, FSHEA
2015	Eric R. Houpt, MD, FIDSA
2014	Sarah E. Cosgrove, MD, MS, FIDSA, FSHEA and Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, FIDSA
2013	Cesar A. Arias, MD, MSc, PhD, FIDSA
2012	Dan A. Barouch, MD, PhD
2011	Umesh Parashar, MBBS, MPH
2010	Eleftherios Mylonakis, MD, PhD, FIDSA
2009	Jean-Laurent Casanova, MD, PHD
2008	Vance G. Fowler, Jr., MD, MHS
2007	Pablo C. Okhuysen, MD, FIDSA
2006	Cynthia G. Whitney, MD, MPH
2005	James E. Crowe, MD
2004	B. Brett Finlay, PhD
2003	Joseph Heitman, MD, PhD
2002	Matthew K. Waldor, MD, PhD
2001	David A. Relman, MD
2000	Michael S. Donnenberg, MD
1999	William A. Petri, Jr., MD, PhD
1998	Joseph W. St. Geme, III, MD
1997	Samuel I. Miller, MD
1996	David D. Ho, MD
1995	Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH
1994	Mark Klempner, MD
1993	Claire Broome, MD
1992	Martin Blaser, MD
1991	Marcus Horwitz, M.D.
1990	Jerrold Ellner, MD
1989	Henry Murray, MD
1988	Walter Stamm, MD
1987	John Gallin, MD
1986	Charles Dinarello, MD
1985	Dennis Kasper, MD
1984	Adel Mahmoud, MD, PhD
1983	Anthony Fauci, MD
1982	George Miller, PhD
1981	Gerald Keusch, MD
1980	Robert Purcell, MD
1979	Stanley Falkow, PhD
1978	King Holmes, MD, PhD
1977	Lowell Glasgow, MD, MS
1976	Sheldon Wolff, MD
1975	Kenneth Warren, MD
1974	Malcolm Artenstein, MD and Emil Gotschilch, MD
1973	Frank Austen, MD
1972	Zanvil Cohn, MD
1971	Jonathan Uhr, MD
1970	Hans Mueller-Eberhard, MD, DMSc
1969	Robert Chancock, MD
1968	Robert Good, MD, PhD