Larry S. Schlesinger, MD, is an internationally recognized authority in infectious diseases with a particular interest in tuberculosis and lung biology. He took the reins of leadership as President/CEO of Texas Biomed in 2017 and has led a transformational strategic planning process that is currently being implemented.
Since coming to San Antonio, Dr. Schlesinger has made a huge impact on the San Antonio biomedical research community, particularly building stronger relationships and innovative partnerships with UT Health San Antonio, Southwest Research Institute, the University of Texas at San Antonio, other colleges and universities in the region and the private sector biomedical landscape. He serves on the Boards of Biomed SA and the SA Medical Foundation and has spoken in several city wide venues discussing the virtues of working together to achieve great things.
Dr. Schlesinger also serves as a Professor at Texas Biomed and is Principal Investigator of several ongoing research grants. He serves as PI for the Southwest National Primate Research Center Base Grant. In 2018, Dr. Schlesinger was named a Healthcare Hero by the San Antonio Business Journal in the area of Outstanding Medical Researcher.
Dr. Schlesinger earned a BA in Biology from Cornell University and MD from Rutgers Medical School. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan and clinical and research fellowships in Infectious Diseases at UCLA. He joined the faculty at the University of Iowa in 1991 where he served as Fellowship Director for the Division of Infectious Diseases and Associate Chair of the Department of Medicine. He moved to the Ohio State University in 2002 where he served as Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine until 2011 when he became first chair of Microbial Infection & Immunity. He also founded the university-wide Center for Microbial Interface Biology (now Infectious Diseases Research Institute).
Dr. Schlesinger is a leading physician scientist whose studies focus on the pathogenesis of tuberculosis and other airborne infectious agents that subvert lung immune mechanisms. His discoveries have led to greater insight into the unique attributes that soluble and cellular components of the innate immune system of humans bring to the microbe-host interface, translating them into drug discovery platforms. He is a prolific scholar, having authored more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, reviews and chapters in leading textbooks on tuberculosis and lung biology. He is also editor of 2 books. He has been continuously funded by the NIH and a number of other agencies for 30 years, a member or chair of several NIH study sections (recent NIAID council member) and other private and federal agencies, and a Fellow of the AAAS, American Academy of Microbiology, AAP, and IDSA. He has served on many advisory boards for universities, NIH, and FDA among others.
Dr. Schlesinger has placed great emphasis on education and mentoring throughout his career, particularly in clinical and translational research, and has been committed to building strong interdisciplinary academic programs through his leadership on training grants and as part of the Medical Scientist Training Program.