Duncan Steele, PhD, is a microbiologist with extensive experience in virology and microbiology, especially for diarrheal diseases and in clinical trials. Before starting at the foundation as a Senior Program Officer in October 2011, Duncan was the Senior Technical Advisor at PATH on enteric vaccines for PATH’s Vaccines and Immunization Program. Dr. Steele worked directly with the Advancing Rotavirus Vaccine Program, which develops affordable, alternative live attenuated rotavirus vaccines with developing country manufactures in India, Brazil and China. He also worked with the Enteric Vaccines Initiative, which develops vaccines against enterotoxigenic E coli and Shigella spp. for young children in developing countries. Dr. Steele has over three decades of experience in diarrheal disease control.

Dr. Steele fulfilled a key role in the unprecedented Merck and GlaxoSmithKline rotavirus vaccines clinical studies conducted in developing countries in Africa and Asia. These studies informed the WHO’s recommendation for the global use of rotavirus vaccine.

Prior to joining PATH, Dr. Steele served as a scientific officer at the WHO’s Initiative for Vaccine Research. He was responsible for diarrhea and enteric vaccine development and coordinated the global strategic research agenda on major diarrhea and enteric disease vaccines, including rotavirus, cholera, ETEC, Shigella and typhoid fever.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Steele conducted clinical microbiology/virology laboratory research in South Africa and served as co-director of the Medunsa Medical Research Council’s Diarrhoeal Pathogens Research Unit based at the University of Limpopo, South Africa, which studied viral and microbial agents associated with diarrhea in young children in Southern Africa.

Dr. Steele graduated from the University of Cape Town in South Africa with a Bachelor of Science (BS) in microbiology in 1979. He received his PhD in microbiology and virology from the University of Limpopo, South Africa in 1990.

Selected Publications

• Risk of Intussusception Following Administration of a Pentavalent Rotavirus Vaccine in US Infants – Journal of the American Medical Association, February, 2012
• Parashar UD, Tate J, Johnson H, Steele AD. Health impact of rotavirus vaccination in developing countries – Progress and a way forward. Clin Infect Dis 2016 May; Suppl 2: S91-95
• Zaman K, Fleming JA, Victor JC, Yunus M, Bari TIA, Azim T, Rahman M, Mowla SMN, Bellini WJ, McNeal M, Icenogle JP, Lopman B, Parashar U, Cortese MM, Steele AD, Neuzil KM. Human rotavirus vaccine can be safely administered at 9 months of age with Measles-Rubella vaccine boosting the rotavirus immune response status of Bangladeshi infants. J Infect Dis 2016; Jan 27. pii: jiw024
• Armah GE, Lewis K, Cortese M, Parashar U, Ansah A, Gazley L, Victor JC, McNeal MM, Binka FN, Steele AD. A randomized controlled trial of the impact of alternative dosing schedules on the immune response to human rotavirus vaccine in rural Ghanaian infants. J Infect Dis 2016; Jan 27. pii: jiw023