Professor
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Disclosure: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
Dr. Okhuysen was born and raised in Mexico, he received his medical degree from the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara and trained at Cook County Hospital as an intern. He then completed his residency in internal medicine and fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Dr. Okhuysen is Program Director for the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center Onco-Transplant Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program, Associate Program Director for the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Programs at the McGovern Medical School and Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Okhuysen has over 30 years’ experience in the study of enteric infectious diseases in various NIH funded studies including NCRR GCRC CAP training award to study cryptosporidiosis. He is past Director of the NIH NCRR funded GCRC at UT Health and co-directed the NIH CTSA at UT Health. He has conducted clinical and translational research in subjects with norovirus, traveler’s diarrhea, cryptosporidiosis with funds received from the NIH, FDA, and EPA and conducted clinical studies in HIV with funding from the NIH CPCRA. Dr. Okhuysen has extensive research experience in characterization of enteric pathogens. He has conducted clinical trials, and human experimental challenge studies with enteropathogens and naturally acquired intestinal infections in US travelers to developing countries. At his current position at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, he has established a laboratory dedicated to the study of enteropathogens in immunocompromised and cancer patients and to study the intestinal microbiome with an emphasis on its role in risk for cancer and response to therapy. Dr. Okhuysen is a co-investigator on two U19 programs funded by NIH DIMD. He received the Oswald Avery Award for Early Accomplishment from the Infectious Diseases Society of America and numerous awards for his Medical Education efforts at UTHealth, UT MD Anderson and Baylor College of Medicine.
