Dr. David Greenberg

By: Kirti Chamkura

Research is an exciting and passionate source of knowledge for all pre-health students and strives to offer a different contribution to the medical field instead of simply a clinical setting. Dr. David Greenberg is a Distinguished Teaching Professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center in the department for Infectious Diseases. Dr. Greenberg focuses on transplants pertaining to immunocompromised patients and antibiotic-resistant infections. I was fortunate enough to work under him over the summer on his project researching the impact of alternating magnetic fields and antibiotic eradication of biofilm all working in a synergistic manner.

When prompting Dr.Greeberg about why he chose to specialize in infectious diseases and what inspired the projects he is currently working on, he explained that “infection can happen anywhere in the body” which is what makes it so fascinating and diverse. He also expressed that prosthetic joint infections are extremely hard to treat because of the development of a structure called biofilm within the joint. Getting another replacement is incredibly expensive and physically taxing on a patient. The beautiful combination of AMF and antibiotics helps to treat patients in a noninvasive manner and iAMF and antibiotic efficacy were seen across numerous strains.

My role in the lab was to test various AMF peak temperatures across various dosages of antibiotics and strains of bacteria. A database of sorts to see the ideal requirements for the type of bacteria and infection. Quite possibly the most exciting thing about research is getting to actively participate in a topic of one’s respective interest while being able to contribute something new to a field you are so deeply about. Dr. Greenberg is also a highly esteemed Professor at UT Southwestern and working with some of his students has shown me how much he not only teaches but motivates his students to pursue curiosity, ambition, and excellence.

Below, are links to his TEDtalk about his ongoing research endeavors and a research paper about his findings.