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Professor Vance Fowler is a clinician scientist focused on clinical and translational research involving antibiotic-resistant bacteria. He is a professor in the Departments of Medicine and Molecular Genetics & Microbiology at Duke University Medical Center and for two decades he has focused on the diagnosis, treatment, and understanding of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA)

Professor Fowler created the Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia Group (SABG), a registry of clinical data, bacterial isolates, and patient DNA from ~2000 patients with Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia. Using this resource, he addressed fundamental clinical questions involving Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia, including the risk of infectious complications and the importance of transesophageal echocardiography and the impact of bacterial characteristics on clinical outcome. Most recently, he is evaluating the role of host genetic characteristics in determining infection severity using a murine sepsis model and the patient DNA from the SABG cohort.

He co-founded the International Collaboration on Endocarditis, a prospective cohort of over 3000 patients from 28 countries with endocarditis. Using this resource, he made the critical observation that S. aureus is now the most common cause of endocarditis throughout much of the world. He has led important clinical trials testing new therapies for Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia, including a randomised, controlled trial comparing daptomycin to standard therapy.

Professor Fowler is currently the Corresponding Principal Investigator (PI) of the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group (ARLG), a $62 million NIH grant facilitated by the Duke Clinical Research Institute that develops, designs, implements, and manages a clinical research agenda to increase the ability to combat antibacterial resistance (AR). The ARLG, launched in 2013 with funding from the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), aims to advance research by building transformational trials that will change clinical practice and reduce the impact of antimicrobial resistance.