Keith S. Kaye, MD, MPH

Division Chief, Division of Allergy, Immunology and Infectious Diseases

Dr. Kaye is the Chief, Division of Allergy, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, and is Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.  

He has devoted his career to the prevention and effective management of healthcare-associated infections. In addition to serving in a variety of quality improvement and administrative roles in infection prevention, antimicrobial stewardship, and quality and patient safety, he has served on national and international clinical guidelines committees. 

Dr. Kaye’s research interests include prevention and treatment of antimicrobial resistant organisms, prevention of healthcare associated infections, and innovative approaches to antimicrobial stewardship.  He has a long and productive track record of federal funding for research pertaining to management of healthcare associated infections (HAIs) and multi-drug resistant organisms (MDROs) including Acinetobacter baumannii, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. He has conducted innovative, groundbreaking clinical trials on HAIs and MDROs. 

Dr. Kaye received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania and completed his Internal Medicine residency and Infectious Diseases fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA. During fellowship, Dr. Kaye earned a Masters in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Kaye has published widely in the peer-reviewed literature and has authored more than 20 book chapters. He also frequently presents original research at national and international conferences. Dr. Kaye is a past President of the Society for Health Epidemiology of America (SHEA). He is an internationally recognized expert in healthcare epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance and has been invited to speak on these topics at venues throughout the world.  

Ahmed Abdul Azim, MD

Associate Chair, Antimicrobial Stewardship Program, RWJUH

Dr. Ahmed Abdul-Azim received his medical degree from the ‘Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland’ in 2011. He completed some of his training in the Irish health care system and worked as a Clinical Tutor for the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Dr. Abdul-Azim also has additional experience in the treatment of patients living with Cystic Fibrosis. In 2017, he completed his internal medicine residency in the Greater Boston Area at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center. Dr. Abdul-Azim completed his clinical infectious diseases fellowship training at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He stayed on to complete an extra year of fellowship training in Infection Control and hospital epidemiology. He then joined the Rutgers RWJMS Division of Infectious Diseases as an assistant professor in 2020. Dr. Abdul-Azim spends most of his clinical time helping treat patients living with cancer and bone marrow transplant recipients who develop infections. He is also part of the RWJUH antimicrobial stewardship team, and he serves as core teaching faculty for RWJMS medical students as well as the RWJMS Infectious Diseases fellowship program.

Susanne Ajao, MD

Dr. Susanne Ajao completed her Internal Medicine residency training at New York Medical College at St. Michael’s Medical Center in Newark, NJ. She then pursued a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, NJ, where she has since continued her career. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases. Her role includes contributions to clinical practice and medical education, reflecting her dedication to advancing knowledge and patient care. Her research is focused on addressing the unique challenges faced by women and minority populations in HIV care and prevention, with a particular emphasis on the barriers these groups encounter. Current projects include investigating the association between antiretroviral therapy, weight gain, and subsequent cardiometabolic risks, aiming to improve health outcomes and tailor interventions to meet the needs of diverse patient populations.

Meena Azeem, MD

Dr. Azeem attended medical school at Dow Medical College in Karachi, Pakistan. She completed internal medicine residency at Wayne State University and infectious disease fellowship at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She joined Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital/Rutgers in 2022. She manages infections in immunocompromised patients, people living with HIV, viral hepatitis, and general infectious disease syndromes. Her academic interests include antibiotic stewardship to improve patient care. Dr. Azeem is board-certified in infectious disease and internal medicine. 

Pinki J. Bhatt, MD

Dr. Bhatt completed her Internal Medicine residency training at University of Texas Medical Branch – Galveston followed by fellowship in Infectious Diseases with Transplant Infectious Disease track at ICAHN School of Medicine – Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Bhatt joined the faculty at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in 2017. Dr. Bhatt is currently an Assistant Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases / Department of Medicine and serves as an Associate Program director for the Infectious Disease Fellowship. She also holds an adjunct Assistant Professor position at the Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy. She is a member of the Infectious Disease Society of America and American Society of Transplantation. Dr. Bhatt specializes in transplant Infectious Diseases. Her clinical care and research is focused on prevention and treatment of infections in patients who have received a solid organ transplant and hematopoietic stem cell transplant as well as patients with left ventricular assist device. A couple of her prior research studies includes secondary blood stream infections in patients infected with Covid-191 and multi-drug resistant infections in patients following heart transplantation2. Dr. Bhatt’s current research is focused on latent tuberculosis infection in solid organ transplant candidates and recipients.

Tanaya Bhowmick, MD

Dr. Bhowmick is an Associate Professor of Medicine. She completed a 7-year combined BS and MD degree from Villanova University and Drexel University College of Medicine. She then came to RWJMS for residency in Internal Medicine, followed by fellowship in Infectious Diseases. She joined the faculty and developed the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. She also serves as the Program Director for the Infectious Diseases fellowship. Dr. Bhowmick has been an active member of antimicrobial stewardship committees locally via the RWJBH collaborative and nationally through Vizient. In addition, she has been involved in clinical trials both investigator initiated and industry-sponsored. Her interests include antibiotic resistance, novel therapeutics and the microbiome.

Susan E. Boruchoff, MD

Director of Clinical Services and Education

Dr. Boruchoff received her undergraduate education at Harvard University (A.B. 1977) and her MD in 1982 from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. She trained in Internal Medicine at George Washington University, and completed a Clinical and Research Fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of Massachusetts. She is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. She has been a faculty member at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School since 1990, where she is currently Professor of Medicine. She also holds an appointment as Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Administration at Rutgers School of Pharmacy. 

Dr. Boruchoff is the Director of Clinical Services and Education for the Division of Allergy, Immunology and Infectious Diseases. Her experiences and contributions to RWJMS and RWJUH are extensive. She is one of the core teaching faculty of the ID Division and the lead clinician on the General Infectious Diseases Consultation Service, extremely committed to medical education and mentorship. Other prior academic efforts include many years as course director of the second-year medical student Infectious Diseases section of Clinical Pathophysiology, for which she received an award for teaching excellence, and several years as the ID Fellowship Program Director. Between 2001 and 2022 she was the Hospital Epidemiologist at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, where she led the Infection Prevention preparations and response to Anthrax, SARS, Ebola and COVID-19 outbreaks, among others, and is now serving as the Associate Hospital Epidemiologist. In addition, between 2019 and 2021 she was the Interim Chief of the Division of Allergy, Immunology & Infectious Diseases. 

Bobby Brooke Herrera, PhD

Dr. Herrera received his PhD in Immunology and Infectious Diseases from Harvard University and performed postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School. In 2022, he was jointly recruited to Rutgers as a Resident Scientist of the Child Health Institute of New Jersey, Core Member of the Rutgers Global Health Institute, and Assistant Professor of Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases (Tenure-Track), Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and a Presidential Scholar. Dr. Herrera’s research aims to translate insights from successful antibody and T cell responses into effective diagnostics and vaccines for global infectious diseases.  

Tricia Burdo, PhD

Henry Rutgers Endowed Professor of Translational Medicine & Science, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences; Professor of Medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School; Associate Director, Rutgers Institute for Translational Medicine & Science (RITMS); Director of Training, RITMS

Dr. Burdo’s research interests are centered around human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated co-morbidities, HIV-associated chronic inflammation, and HIV cure. This work involves three main foci 1. HIV-associated cardiovascular disease and cardiac fibrosis, 2. HIV viral persistence and pathogenesis in the peripheral and central nervous systems, and 3. Use of the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing approaches in HIV cure in non-human primates.

Dr. Burdo has developed an extensive research resume in cardiovascular complications in HIV. Her group has published several high-impact publications on chronic immune activation in people with HIV (PWH) who also have HIV cardiovascular disease (CVD). They are interested in better understanding the mechanisms through which HIV infection mediates monocyte/macrophage activation to produce accelerated atherogenesis. The laboratory specifically investigated whether HIV expression is sufficient to accelerate atherosclerosis and evaluated the role of caspase-1 activation in monocytes/macrophages in HIV. Their data highlight that caspase-1 activation is highly relevant to immune dysfunction and activation even among ART-treated PWH, and antiretroviral therapy (ART) is not sufficient to prevent CVD. With emerging evidence in humans and extensive research in the preclinical model, they have established the crucial role of the immune system and inflammasome in driving HIV-associated atherosclerosis.

Dr. Burdo has a long-standing interest in chronic immune activation in neurocognitive impairment in HIV and is one of the leading basic scientists in neuroHIV research in the world. In collaboration with colleagues at Washington University, Dr. Burdo uses quantitative measures of immune dysfunction in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid to understand the differential effects of cannabis exposure on peripheral and brain inflammation within people with HIV. Dr. Burdo is an internationally recognized expert in the use of non-human primate models. In collaboration with colleagues at UPENN, her laboratory examines the persistence and pathogenesis of a novel SHIVD transmitted/founder virus in the central nervous system of a non-human primate model. Understanding how HIV-1 persists through effective ART is essential to develop cure strategies to induce ART-free virus remission. They are also developing and testing both global and myeloid-targeting CRISPR gene editing approaches on CNS reservoir reduction using SHIV non-human primate models.

Dr. Burdo has initiated HIV cure studies using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing using the non-human primate model of HIV and has published two recent manuscripts in Nature Communications. Dr. Burdo is the PI and Co-Director of the prestigious Martin Delaney Collaboratory grant entitled “CRISPR for Cure,” which uses CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing in a non-human primate model of HIV to target both viral and host genes. The overarching goal of this program is to use genome editing mediated by CRISPR to enhance immune responses and directly ablate HIV proviruses. Dr. Burdo directs one of the three research foci of this Collaboratory aimed to enhance effector cell function and killing and limit viral spread by target cells using innovative genome editing.

Anjali Majumdar, MD

Director, Transplant and Oncology Infectious Diseases

Dr. Majumdar received her medical degree from Jefferson Medical College (now known as Sidney Kimmel Medical College) followed by internal medicine residency at Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. After completing infectious disease fellowship at University of Maryland in 2016, she worked at MedStar Washington Hospital Center managing patients with infections related to heart and kidney transplants, left ventricular assist devices, hematologic malignancies, as well as patients living with HIV and Hepatitis C. With her experience as Medical Director of the Ryan White Part A and Disease Intervention Services programs, Dr. Majumdar is interested in examining interventions extending beyond the office and hospital setting to improve patient outcomes. She joined the Rutgers-RWJMS program in 2022 as Director of Transplant and Oncology Infectious Disease and looks forward to growing a program engaged in comprehensive care and education.

John Mills, MD

Hospital Epidemiologist, RWJUH

Dr. Mills received his medical degree from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and completed his internal medicine residency at Brown University/Rhode Island Hospital.  After working for three years as a hospitalist at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital, he completed his Infectious Disease fellowship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, with specialized training in Infection Prevention and Antimicrobial Stewardship.  He previously spent six years on faculty at the University of Michigan Health System, where he served as the Associate Hospital Epidemiologist, leading system-wide efforts for the prevention of MRSA and Clostridium difficile infections.  Dr. Mills joined the Rutgers RWJMS Division of Infectious Diseases in 2022 and currently serves at the Hospital Epidemiologist at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.  He has published extensively on the epidemiology of multidrug-resistant bacteria and infection prevention strategies for post-acute care settings.  He is an active member of the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA).   

Catherine A. Monteleone, MD

Director of Allergy and Immunology, Rutgers-RWJMS

Catherine Monteleone, MD is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Allergy, Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.  She received her medical degree (MD) from The Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY. She then completed her residency in Internal Medicine and her fellowship in Allergy and Immunology at St Luke’s/Roosevelt Medical Center in NY. She is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Allergy/Immunology. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Dr. Monteleone is Director of Allergy and Immunology at Rutgers-RWJMS. She has vast clinical expertise in treating allergic and immunologic diseases, particularly food and drug allergies.   

Elizabeth Schmidt, PA-C

Elizabeth received her masters in Physician Assistant studies at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. After graduating she worked at University Hospital in Newark, NJ caring for patients with HIV/AIDS. Following this, she then spent 7 years at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center caring for immunocompromised leukemia and bone marrow transplant patients with infections. She joined the infectious disease service at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson University (RWJMS) in 2020. Since joining the program at Rutgers -RWJMS she has enjoyed caring for patients with solid and hematologic malignancies as well as mentoring and teaching ID fellows and students. Her extensive experience and knowledge in immunocompromised hosts makes her a very valuable member of our transplant infectious disease team

Hamadullah Shaikh, MD

Dr. Shaikh received his medical degree from Ziauddin University in Pakistan in 2011. He then moved to Saudi Arabia where worked at International Medical Center as a research assistant for a few years before moving to Detroit, Michigan in 2015, where he did some research in Infectious Diseases under the mentorship of Dr. Keith Kaye. He eventually completed his internal medicine residency at St. Francis Medical Center in New Jersey. He was also a chief resident during his residency and was heavily involved in the development and maintenance of charity care clinic at St. Francis. He was also part of the COVID-19 task force and developed new policies for the hospital during the pandemic. He then moved to Philadelphia where he completed his fellowship in infectious disease at Sidney Kimmel College of Medicine Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. He completed his training in September 2022 and joined the Division of Infectious Diseases at Rutgers – Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) right after his fellowship. He currently serves as the liaison for our outpatient practice for our division. He is dedicated to providing evidence-based care to his patients. He is also passionate about teaching fellows, residents, and medical students and loves to learn from everyone. In his personal life, he enjoys spending time with his family and collecting timepieces.