IDCRC Mentee Profile: Sumanth Cherukumilli, MD

After high school, I went to Georgia Institute of Technology, where I trialed a number of majors; I ultimately left without a degree three years after I started. This experience humbled me, and I spent much time afterward trying to find my place, finally beginning a six-year medical program overseas (beginning in Manipal, India, and ending in Antigua), and ultimately receiving my medical degree from the American University of Antigua in 2018. I have always recognized the extraordinary opportunity I had to reinvent myself and have a second chance at an academic career, due in no small part to the support of my family and many others who never gave up on me, even in my lowest moments, and wanted to reflect that support by choosing a career which allowed me to advocate for the most underserved individuals, not just in the United States, but globally.

Infectious diseases seemed like the perfect fit. While I was in India, I remember someone telling me something that always stuck with me: "Here, infectious diseases is medicine." I realized during medical school that infectious diseases rob many throughout the world of their lives and livelihoods far too early; it seemed important for me to join a field where people were trying to address these preventable deaths. Interestingly, I didn't think I would be involved in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) adjacent work when I came into the fellowship. After I met with potential mentors, however, I was really struck by how urgent the work that Milagritos D. Tapia, MD, and Karen Kotloff, MD, were doing and thought that focusing on AMR could help us understand why the mortality rates in the hospital were so high. I was driven more by need than anything else, and interest followed shortly afterward.

Under the guidance of Drs. Tapia and Kotloff, I am the primary investigator of a sub-study investigating the etiologies of neonatal sepsis in the primary children's hospital in Bamako, Mali. We began this study due to concerns that the burden was not accurately reflected by ongoing surveillance due to protocol limitations. We have found high burdens of novel pathogens, including Pantoea species, as well as the traditional and expected multidrug-resistant Gram negative organisms, such as Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, and are currently in the process of sequencing organisms to determine the AMR genes prevalent and strain interrelatedness.

We eventually hope to understand the transmission dynamics of both early and late-onset neonatal sepsis in Mali by expanding surveillance culturing and whole genome sequencing to delivering mothers and the environment in the neonatal unit. These efforts will help us establish robust infection control practices and antimicrobial stewardship programs in this setting, where they are desperately needed.

I enjoy reading, writing, and spending time with my wife, my one-year-old son, and my dog. My favorite book is The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri- I would highly recommend reading it if you haven't already.