David Alan Hunstad MD

Dr. Hunstad specializes in pediatric infectious disease. He is the director of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Disease at Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Hunstad evaluates children with a variety of infectious diseases at St. Louis Children's Hospital. In his research laboratory in the McDonnell Pediatric Research Building, he studies the interactions of pathogenic bacteria with their hosts. He is particularly interested in mechanisms by which Gram-negative pathogens interfere with host immune responses in order to establish infection. Related projects in the laboratory are aimed at determining how bacteria assemble and utilize outer membrane protein virulence factors on their surfaces. He also participates in collaborative studies of methicillin-resistant Staph infections in children. The overarching goal of these studies is to develop new targets useful in the prevention and treatment of common bacterial infections.