Dr. Kate Shapiro found her career passion as a medical student during an internal medicine rotation in the intensive care unit. One of the patients she followed had Legionella pneumonia and another was being treated for endocarditis caused by a Staphylococcus aureus infection. The experience fueled her devotion to a career focused on discoveries and patient care. Her commitment to understanding and improving treatment of infectious diseases has not waned.
As a college student, Dr. Shapiro completed an internship in a melanoma immunotherapy laboratory at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. There she gained a deeper understanding of the immune system and its role in cancer and infectious disease prevention and treatment.
Dr. Shapiro earned her medical degree from the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York (2018). She completed pediatric residency training at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital (2021). She recently completed a clinical fellowship at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis.
Her research focus is infections in children with sickle cell disease. She is also interested in clinical breastfeeding medicine for infectious disease prevention and amelioration.
“My goals include using clinical research to improve clinical care and patient care management while moving the field of infectious disease treatment forward. The rigorous and comprehensive curriculum offered at St. Jude through the master’s program in Clinical Investigations will provide a strong foundation to achieve those goals while providing hope and support to children and families.”
Education
Pediatric Residency - Stony Brook Childrens Hospital, Stony Brook, New York (2021)
MD - Renaissance School of Medicine, Stony Brook University (2018)
Publications
A. Yu, K. Shapiro, C. Beneri and L. Wilks-Gallo. Streptococcus lutetiensis neonatal meningitis with empyema. Access Microbiology 3(9), 2021.
K. Shapiro, M. Shapiro, T. MacCarthy, #84: Evolutionary Pressure from APOBEC Causes an Underrepresentation of TC Motifs in Human Polyomavirus. Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society 10(1): S14–S15, 2021.