Robert C. Bollinger Jr., MD

Dr. Bollinger is the Raj and Kamla Gupta Professor of Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School of Medicine, and he holds joint appointments in International Health at the Johns Hopkins (JH) Bloomberg School of Public Health, and in Community Public Health at the JH School of Nursing. He is Founding Director of the Center for Clinical Global Health Education (CCGHE), Director of the JHU Fogarty India Program, and Associate Director for Medicine of the JH Center for Global Health. 

Dr. Bollinger has more than 40 years of experience in international public health, clinical research, and education dealing with such global health priorities as HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, dengue, antibiotic resistant infections, COVID-19 and other emerging diseases. His research interests include identifying biological and behavioral risk factors for HIV transmission; characterizing the clinical progression and treatment of HIV and related infections; development/evaluation of novel point-of-care diagnostics and implementation of research projects to optimize healthcare capacity and delivery in resource-limited settings. Working with partners in more than 20 countries, Dr. Bollinger and CCGHE faculty pioneered the development and use of distance learning and the award-winning emocha mobile health platform.

He has >25 years of experience developing and evaluating novel diagnostics. From 2013-2018, he was a Founding Inventor and the Director of the Johns Hopkins miLab Program, to develop novel, low-cost point-of-care (POC) diagnostics, leveraging the partnership of JHU biomedical scientists and silicon microchip engineers at imec in Leuven, Belgium.  In 2015, the miLAB program led to the launch of a joint venture start-up company between JHU, imec and private investors in Belgium (miDiagnostics).  Between 2015-18, under his leadership, the miLAB research program at JHU generated 17 new IP disclosures and multiple patents, supporting the development of four point-of-care diagnostic platforms (cell-free imaging, nucleic acid detection, protein detection and biochemical assays).

Dr. Bollinger has been invited to participate in public health training programs and expert committees in more than 15 countries. He served as a member of the US Presidential Advisory Council for HIV/AIDS (PACHA), a member of the PACHA International Sub-committee, and a member of the Institute of Medicine Forum on Public-Private Partnerships for Global Health and Safety. He also currently serves as a member of the NIH Fogarty International Center Advisory Board.

Dr. Bollinger is committed to improving the health of people living in resource-limited communities through clinical research, education, and leadership training. He established health research and education programs in countries throughout Africa, South and Central America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. In 1991, he initiated an NIH-funded Indo-US HIV research program in Pune, India, involving the National AIDS Research Institute/ICMR and the BJ Government Medical College. He has served as Principal Investigator for many NIH-supported studies and clinical trials in Pune, including the SWEN study, which led to changes in World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for treatment of infants born to HIV positive mothers to prevent mother-to-child transmission.

Under his 26 years as leader of the Hopkins India Fogarty International Research Training Program, short-term and degree training has been provided to more than 140 visiting Indian scientists at JHU, and in-country training has been provided to more than 2,000 Indian scientists. His commitment to education has been honored with the Johns Hopkins Department of Medicine David M. Levine Excellence in Mentoring Award.

Dr. Bollinger is author of more than 200 peer-reviewed research publications and 15 book chapters, including the first and largest studies of risk factors for HIV transmission in India, the cloning and sequencing of the first HIV viruses from India, the only studies characterizing the primary immune response to HIV in India, and the demonstration of increased risk of HIV acquisition with recent HSV infection and lack of circumcision.

Dr. Bollinger received an undergraduate degree from Haverford College, a Doctor of Medicine from Dartmouth Medical School, and a Master of Public Health from JH Bloomberg School of Public Health. He completed his internal medicine training at the University of Maryland Medical Systems, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship in infectious diseases at the JHU School of Medicine.