Dr. Sumanth Gandra joined the Department of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases as an Assistant Professor on January 21, 2019.
Dr. Gandra received his medical degree from Osmania Medical College, Hyderabad, India in 2004. In 2007, he received his MPH degree in community health from Eastern Kentucky University. He completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Peoria in 2010 and his infectious diseases fellowship at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 2013. After his infectious diseases fellowship, he worked at the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP) institute in Washington, DC until 2017. At CDDEP, he was involved in the surveillance of antibiotic resistance, antibiotic consumption and establishing a repository of global antibiotic resistance data. His work at CDDEP also focused on understanding the drivers of antibiotic resistance and consumption in India and other low-income countries. He serves as a member of the WHO Expert Committee on the Selection and Use of Essential Medicines since 2017. In 2018, he completed a medical microbiology fellowship at the University of Chicago/NorthShore University HealthSystem.
His research interests include understanding the molecular epidemiology, burden, and transmission dynamics of antimicrobial resistance in healthcare settings and in the community in India. He is also interested in studying the transmission dynamics of antibiotic resistance among humans during religious mass-bathing events and studying the use of antibiotics in the poultry industry in India. His ultimate goal is to design interventions to reduce the burden of antibiotic resistance and improve antimicrobial use in India and other resource-limited countries.