Dr. Robert Striker is a faculty member in the Division of Infectious Disease within the Department of Medicine. During his MD/PhD training at Washington University, his thesis work with Dr. Scott Hultgren focused on understanding and blocking the critical P pili attachment factors needed for most urinary tract infections. He completed his internal medicine residency in San Francisco, California at a time when combination antiretroviral therapy regimes were greatly reducing mortality of the HIV epidemic. During his clinical fellowship training at Stanford University, he also conducted postdoctoral research with Dr. Karla Kirkegaard on Hepatitis C Virus (HCV). Upon joining the faculty of UW-Madison, his initial work focused on improving antiviral therapy for HCV, and specifically the role of phosphorylation in flaviviral life cycles. His research group demonstrated that phosphorylation events contribute to mosquito-mediated spread of Dengue and other flaviviruses. More recently, he has focused on developing kinase inhibitors for viral and bacterial infections, particularly PASTA kinase inhibitors that can sensitize gram positive infections to beta lactam antibiotics as well as efforts to quantify and shrink the HIV reservoir as a means of lessening immune dysfunction that accompanies HIV infection. Dr. Striker's research has been supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, the Hartwell Foundation, the Wisconsin Partnership Program, the UW Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, and the Veteran’s Association. He is also the Course Director for a multidisciplinary course for medical students, nurse practitioner students, physician assistant students, and pharmacy students who are interested in improving care for those that are incarcerated.
As a physician-scientist, Dr. Striker’s approach combines clinical insights with advances from basic and translational research to improve the treatment of infectious diseases. He is a member of the American Association of the Study of Liver, the American Society of Transplantation, a founding member of the National Hepatitis in Corrections Network, and a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
Dr. Striker’s clinical interests include infectious disease with emphasis on viral hepatitis and antiviral therapy, HIV/AIDS, and caring for individuals who are incarcerated or who were formerly incarcerated.
Dr. Striker’s research focuses on susceptibility and protection from human papilloma virus (HPV), immune recovery on antiretroviral therapy and mechanisms of immune system dysfunction in context of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), including well-controlled HIV. He is the principal investigator (PI) of a phase three pediatric Lyme vaccine trial and sub-PI of a phrase three cytomegalovirus (CVM) mRNA vaccine trial to prevent primary CMV during pregnancy.