Faculty Profile
Aubree Gordon, PhD, MPH
- Professor, Epidemiology
- Professor, Global Public Health
- Director, Michigan Center for Infectious Disease Threats and Pandemic Preparedness
Aubree Gordon is an infectious disease epidemiologist whose research examines how prior infections and vaccination shape immunity, susceptibility, and transmission. Her work combines long-running cohort and household studies with virologic and immunologic analyses, with a primary focus on influenza and other respiratory viruses. She also studies dengue, Zika, and chikungunya. Dr. Gordon directs the Michigan Center for Infectious Disease Threats and Pandemic Preparedness, which connects researchers across the university and provides resources, training, and opportunities for collaboration to the broader infectious disease community and public health practitioners. She also leads the Infection Prevention Pathways Program, which combines specialized coursework with paid applied experiences to prepare students for careers in healthcare infection prevention. She leads major multidisciplinary and international research programs supported by federal, philanthropic, and industry funders, with longstanding collaborations in the United States, Nicaragua, and New Zealand.
Her research has identified immune correlates of protection against influenza, characterized factors influencing respiratory virus transmission, and demonstrated how early influenza exposures shape later antibody responses. Her international collaborations have also strengthened infectious disease research, laboratory, and surveillance capacity in Nicaragua. She is a National Academy of Sciences Kavli Fellow and a Senior Fellow of the Michigan Society of Fellows.
- PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 2009
- MPH, University of California, Berkeley, 2005
- MA, University of California, Berkeley 2002
- BS University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1998
Research Interests:
Infectious disease, global health, respiratory viruses, influenza, SARS-CoV-2, arboviral
diseases
Research Projects:
Dr. Gordon leads two long-running cohort platforms in Managua, Nicaragua. The Nicaraguan
Pediatric Influenza Cohort Study has followed children from birth through age 14 since
2011 to investigate respiratory virus incidence, immunity, reinfection, and immune
imprinting. Her household cohort, established in 2017 and extended through 2028, combines
prospective family surveillance with intensive transmission studies of influenza and
other respiratory viruses.
Dr. Gordon is a PI of DIVINCI, a multidisciplinary program examining how influenza infections and vaccination during early life shape immune development across childhood. The program connects longitudinal cohorts in Nicaragua and New Zealand with collaborators specializing in epidemiology, virology, antibody responses, B cells, and T cells.
In collaboration with Michigan Medicine, Dr. Gordon co-led the IASO and VIVA studies, two large prospective studies of SARS-CoV-2 infection and immunity in Michigan. Although participant follow-up has ended, analyses and publications continue. Together, the studies generated numerous publications on natural and vaccine-induced immunity, reinfection, variants, and long COVID. Their findings also contributed evidence used in U.S. and European deliberations about COVID-19 vaccine composition.
Dr. Gordon also collaborates on studies of dengue, Zika, and chikungunya immunity and transmission in Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, and Ecuador.
Publications:
Sun J, Jo G, Troxell CA, Fu Y, Hoezl R, Lv H, Abozeid HH, Teo QW, Pholcharee T, McGrath JJC, Changrob S, Nelson SA, Yasuhara A, Huang M, Zheng NY, Chervin JC, Li L, Fernández-Quintero ML, Loeffler JR, Rodriguez AJ, Huang J, Swanson OM, Balmaseda A, Kuan G, Campredon L, Allen EK, Neumann G, Wu NC, Kawaoka Y, Krammer F, Mejias A, Ramilo O, Thomas PG, Gordon A, Ward AB, Han J, Wilson PC. B cell imprinting in children impairs antibodies to the haemagglutinin stalk. Nature. 2026 May;653(8114):528-537. doi: 10.1038/s41586-026-10248-6.
Hoy G, Cortier T, Maier HE, Kuan G, Lopez R, Sanchez N, Ojeda S, Plazaola M, Stadlbauer D, Shotwell A, Balmaseda A, Krammer F, Cauchemez S*, Gordon A*. Anti-neuraminidase and anti-HA stalk antibodies reduce the susceptibility to and infectivity of influenza A/H3N2 virus. Nature Communications. 2025 Dec 11;16(1):10910. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-65283-0.
Zambrana JV, Mellis IA, Shotwell A, Maier HE, Saborio Y, Barillas C, Lopez R, Vasquez G, Plazaola M, Sanchez N, Ojeda S, Gilbertson I, Kuan G, Wang Q, Liu L, Balmaseda A, Ho DD*, Gordon A*. Variant-specific antibody correlates of protection against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron symptomatic and overall infections. Nature Communications. 2025 Nov 21;16(1):10305. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-65235-8.
Wang Q, Mellis IA, Wu M, Bowen A, Gherasim C, Valdez R, Shah JG, Purpura LJ, Yin MT, Gordon A*, Guo Y*, Ho DD*. KP.2-based monovalent mRNA vaccines robustly boost antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 2025 Mar;25(3). doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(25)00058-1.
Wraith, S, Balmaseda, A, Bustos Carrillo, FA, Kuan, G, Huddleston, J, Kubale, J, Lopez, R, Ojeda, S, Schiller, A, Lopez, B, Sanchez, N, Webby, R, Nelson, MI, Harris, E, Gordon, A. Homotypic protection against influenza in a pediatric cohort in Managua, Nicaragua. Nature Communications. 2022 Mar 4;13(1):1190. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-28858-9.
Ng S, Nachbagauer R, Balmaseda A, Stadlbauer D, Ojeda S, Patel M, Rajabhathor A, Lopez R, Guglia AF, Sanchez N, Amanat F, Gresh L, Kuan G, Krammer F*, Gordon A*. Novel correlates of protection against influenza A(H1N1)pdm infection. Nature Medicine. 2019 Jun;25(6):962-967. doi: 10.1038/s41591-019-0463-9.
Gordon A*, Gresh L*, Ojeda S, Katzelnick LA, Sanchez N, Gonzalez K, Lopez B, Nunez A, Coloma J, Burger-Calderon R, Kuan G, Balmaseda A, Harris E. Prior dengue virus infection protects against Zika in a pediatric cohort in Nicaragua. PLOS Medicine. 2019 Jan 22;16(1). doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002726.
Email: gordonal@umich.edu
Office: 734-763-3580
Address:5622 SPH I
1415 Washington Heights
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
For media inquiries: sph.media@umich.edu
Areas of Expertise: COVID-19, Global Public Health, Infectious Disease
Aubree Gordon in the News
Building a better vaccine: Study IDs expanded, role of flu antibodies in preventing transmission
Findings suggest future vaccines use natural antibodies to target both infection and spread
