Philip A. Mudd, Md, PhD

2023 Dean’s Impact Award Recipient

In the earliest stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Philip A. Mudd, MD, PhD, and his collaborator, Jane O’Halloran, MD, PhD, developed a university-wide biospecimen collection repository for COVID-19 patient samples modeled after an influenza repository he’d previously created. The biorepository study ultimately collected serial biospecimens from 500 individuals between March and September of 2020, including many of the first individuals diagnosed in the St. Louis area. Many of the subjects were followed for a year after their diagnosis. To date, the samples have been used in studies leading to more than 14 publications for Washington University researchers and have also been used to generate preliminary data for numerous federally funded research projects on campus. Mudd’s own laboratory’s work on COVID-19 immune responses has led to corresponding-author publications in Cell and Science Advances. His work on COVID-19 vaccines recently led to his first funded NIH R01. Most importantly, Mudd maintained a robust clinical workload throughout the pandemic, treating many of the first patients with this disease in the Emergency Department during personal protective equipment shortages and subsequent waves of infections that overwhelmed hospitals, resources and many of our dedicated health care coworkers. Mudd has served as a knowledge resource on COVID-19 diagnostics and treatments for fellow faculty in the department. He also served on a national task force to develop the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s “COVID-19 Provider Toolkit” and “COVID-19 Patient Toolkit,” which were published online just in time to provide diagnostic and treatment guidance prior to the Omicron wave.