Dr. Lihua Song received his bachelor’s degree in microbiology from Shandong University in 2001. After receiving his Ph.D. in military preventive medicine from the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in 2006, he joined the Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology as an assistant professor of microbiology. In 2008, he was appointed to serve the United Nations’ Mission in Liberia for eight months. He received postdoctoral training in the Laboratory of Intracellular Parasites of the Rocky Mountain Laboratories of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseasesfrom July 2010 to June 2013. He became an associate professor in 2009 and chief of the Laboratory of Rickettsiology of the Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiologyin September 2013.
Dr. Song’s research focuses on the biology, pathogenesis, and immunity of Rickettsia, Coxiella and Chlamydia. All these three intracellular prokaryotic parasites contain Category A and B bioterrorism agents. His long-term goal is to define their virulence factors important for bacterial evasion of innate host defense mechanisms, to define mechanisms of adaptive protective immunity, and to design new therapeutic strategies for the prevention of human intracellular bacterial infections.
