Julie Parsonnet

Julie Parsonnet is an Infectious Diseases specialist whose research focuses on the role of infections in chronic disease. Her group’s work was pivotal in establishing a bacterial cause of gastric cancer and gastric lymphoma. More recently, she has focused on how infectious agents alter metabolism, growth and human body temperature. During COVID, Dr. Parsonnet joined others at Stanford in understanding and combatting the pandemic, including developing uses of wastewater for surveillance of infectious diseases, work that is ongoing for a variety of pathogens. Other ongoing research studies the endemic fungus – coccidioidomycosis – and the effects of climate change on its distribution and uses of wastewater epidemiology to monitor HIV and tuberculosis.

Dr. Parsonnet is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Epidemiological Society, the American Society for Clinical Investigation and is a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. She serves on the advisory committee for the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health, the council of the Association of American Physicians, the Advisory Board for Stanford University, and is President of SAFE, an NGO of healthcare providers dedicated to reducing firearms injuries and deaths.