Mark Schleiss | Department Of Pediatrics Professor
University of Minnesota

Dr. Mark R. Schleiss is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota Medical School. He completed his undergraduate studies in Microbiology at Stanford University, followed by Medical School and Pediatric Residency at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, Oregon. He completed a combined Fellowship program in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Washington Medical School and Molecular Medicine at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He began his studies in cytomegalovirus (CMV) biology during his Fellowship, and extended these to the study of CMV vaccines during his appointment at Cincinnati Children's Hospital and Research Foundation (1991-2004). In 2005 he was recruited to the University of Minnesota to assume the American Legion and Auxiliary Research Foundation Endowed Chair in Pediatrics and head the Center for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Translational Research. He has had continuous NIH and March of Dimes support to advance both preclinical vaccine studies for congenital CMV as well as to study the epidemiology of congenital CMV in Minnesota, through a newborn screening study currently ongoing in collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His laboratory program is also actively engaged in pathogenesis studies and evaluation of preconception vaccine strategies for prevention of congenital CMV transmission, using a guinea pig model of vertical virus transmission to the fetus.