Michael G. Kurilla, M.D., Ph. D. is the director of the Office of Biodefense Research Affairs and associate director for Biodefense Product Development for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). His primary role is to provide overall institute coordination for product development of medical countermeasures against bioterror threats. At the University of Virginia, he was an assistant professor of pathology as well as co-director of the Laboratory of Molecular Diagnostics and associate director for clinical microbiology. Dr. Kurilla moved to the private sector working in anti-infective drug development at Dupont Pharmaceuticals, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Wyeth. He subsequently joined NIAID as a medical officer. In 2005, he was named to his current positions within NIAID. He received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. He earned his M.D.-Ph.D. from Duke University. Dr. Kurilla took his postgraduate medical training in pathology at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Elliott Kieff at Harvard Medical School as a Life Sciences Research Foundation fellow, followed by a Markey Scholar Award.