Aaron A. Tobian, MD, PhD

Professional Titles

• Director, Transfusion Medicine Division
• Deputy Director for Clinical Affairs, Department of Pathology
• CLIA Director of Clinical Laboratories, Johns Hopkins Hospital

Primary Academic Title

Professor of Pathology

Background

Centers and Institutes

• AIDS Research, Center for
• Comprehensive Transplant Center
• Global Health, Center for

Clinical Trials Summary

Dr. Tobian is the Principal Investigator for the randomized trial to evaluate Mirasol whole-blood pathogen reduction technology system to reduce malaria and emerging transfusion-transmitted infections in Uganda.

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Additional Academic Titles

Professor of Medicine, Professor of Oncology

Contact for Research Inquiries

Canegie 437
600 N. Wolfe St.
Baltimore, MD 21287

Research Interests

HIV and Transfusion transmitted infections

Research Summary

Dr. Tobian has an established NIH-funded research program that involve large international multicounty studies in three main areas.

1. Evaluate pathogen reduction technology to prevent transfusion transmitted infections.

Working closely with the Makerere University-Johns Hopkins University (MU-JHU) collaboration, Dr. Tobian is PI of the randomized trial to evaluate Mirasol whole-blood pathogen reduction technology system to reduce malaria and emerging transfusion-transmitted infections in Uganda.

2. Determine the epidemiologic risk factors of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections 

In collaboration with Uganda’s Rakai Health Sciences Program (RHSP), Dr. Tobian’s team has established a research program to evaluate risk factors for HIV.  Working closely with the RHSP, the investigators are evaluating the efficacy of male circumcision in preventing sexually transmitted infections in men and their female partners. In addition, using foreskin mucosal tissue, they are assessing the genital cellular immune milieu associated with sexually transmitted infections to develop novel HIV prevention therapies.

3.  Assess the risks and benefits transplanting HIV-positive organs into recipients with HIV

The HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act permitted HIV-positive organ transplantation for HIV infected recipients under research protocols.  We have evaluated the risk (such as HIV-superinfection), safety and efficacy of HIV-positive kidney and liver transplantation.  This research led to HIV-positive organ transplants becoming standard of care in November 2024. 

Google Scholar - Publications

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=o8QRI-cAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

PubMed - Publications

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=tobian+a

Selected Publications

• Tobian AAR, Serwadda D, Quinn TC, Kigozi G, Gravitt PE, Laeyendecker O, Charvat B, Ssempijja V, Riesdel M, Oliver AE, Nowak RG, Moulton LH, Chen MZ, Reynolds SJ, Wawer MJ, Gray RH. Male circumcision for the prevention of HSV-2 and HPV infections and syphilis. New England Journal of Medicine. 2009;360:1298-309.
• Carson JL, Guyatt G, Heddle NM, Grossman BJ, Cohn CS, Fung MK, Gernsheimer T, Holcomb JB, Kaplan LJ, Katz LM, Peterson N, Ramsey G, Rao SV, Roback JD, Shander A, Tobian AAR. Clinical practice guidelines from AABB: red blood cell transfusion thresholds and storage. JAMA. 2016; 316:2025-2035.
• Goel R, Chappidi M, Patel EU, Ness PM, Cushing MM, Frank S, Tobian AAR. Trends in red blood cell, plasma and platelet transfusions in the United States, 1993-2014. JAMA.  2018; 319: 825-827.
• Sullivan D, Gebo KA, Shoman S, Bloch EM, Lau B, Shenoy A, Mosnaim G, Gniadek T, Fukuta Y, Patel B, Heath S, Levine A, Meisenberg B, Spivak E, Anjan S, Huaman M, Blair J, Currier J, Paxton JH, Gerber J, Petrini J, Broderick P, Rausch W, Cordisco ME, Hammel J, Greenblatt B, Cluzet V, Cruser D, Oei K, Abinante M, Hammitt L, Sutcliffe C, Forthal D, Zand M, Cachay E, Raval J, Kassaye S, Foster C, Roth M, Marshall C, Yarava A, Lane K, McBee N, Gawad A, Karlen N, Singh A, Jabs D, Appel LJ,  Shade D, Erhardt S, Baksh S, Laeyendecker O, Pekosz A, Klein S, Casadevall A, Tobian AAR, Hanley D.  Early outpatient COVID-19 treatment trial with convalescent plasma.  New England Journal of Medicine.  2022; 386:1700-1711. 
• Durand CM, Massie A, Florman S, Liang T, Rana MM, Friedman-Moraco R, Gilbert A, Stock P, Mehta SA, Mehta S, Stosor V, Pereira MR, Morris MI, Hand J, Aslam S, Malinis M, Haidar G, Small CB, Santos CAQ, Schaenman J, Baddley J, Wojciechowski D, Blumberg EA, Ranganna K, Adebiyi O, Elias N, Castillo-Lugo JA, Giorgakis E, Apewokin S, Brown D, Ostrander D, Eby Y, Desai N, Naqvi F, Bagnasco S, Watson N, Brittain E, Odim J, Redd AD, Tobian AAR, Segev DL for the HOPE in Action Investigators.  Safety of kidney transplantation from donors with HIV. New England Journal of Medicine.  2024; 391: 1390-1401.

Graduate Program Affiliations

• Pathobiology