About

Dr. Bowman’s research focuses on two main areas: tropical medicine, in particular, vector-borne and zoonotic parasitic diseases including Trypanosoma cruzi (the agent of Chagas disease), Zika virus, and toxoplasmosis; and emerging infections such as Zika virus and SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19. Her primary study sites are in Bolivia and Peru, where She studies neurological opportunistic infections in HIV, including CNS Chagas disease, Toxoplasma encephalitis, and TB meningitis; manifestations of T. cruzi infection such as reactivation in HIV, congenital Chagas disease, and Chagas cardiomyopathy; and diagnostic test development. She also has projects at UNC’s site in Leon, Nicaragua studying Zika virus infection and its consequences for fertility and early childhood as well as diarrheal diseases. Dr. Bowman also has been involved in several projects understanding the COVID-19 pandemic, including a cohort of patients at UNC that created a biobank of diverse specimens linked to extensive clinical and demographic data, a study of risk factors for infection in food processing and farm workers in North Carolina, involvement in the Respiratory Virus Transmission Network studying household transmission and vaccine effectiveness, and epidemiological analyses of the pandemic in Nicaragua and Bolivia. Her clinical interests include HIV and chronic parasitic infections such as Chagas disease and neurocysticercosis. She speaks Spanish and enjoys working with North Carolina’s immigrant population in the clinical setting.

In the news

• 

  IAMIGHID: The Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Ecology Lab (IDEEL)

  Researchers in the Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Ecology Lab (IDEEL) at UNC are process driven investigators with a unique comradery, working in 20+ countries to improve basic understandings of pathogens. The applied nature of their work has a direct impact on the health and well-being of millions of individuals around the globe, while also having … Read more

• 

  IGHID Investigators Discuss Projects As New Academic Year Begins

  Global health research is a collaborative process, and each researcher at the Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases contributes a piece to solving the puzzle of disease and morbidity. With a new academic year underway, read what some of our investigators are working on to improve the health of global populations. Their multi-disciplinary findings will be … Read more

• 

  Sciaudone awarded BWF-ASTMH postdoctoral fellowship to continue diagnostics research in Peru

  Michael Sciaudone, MD, an infectious diseases specialist at UNC, has won a 2021 postdoctoral fellowship in tropical infectious diseases from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund-American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (ASTMH). Three of the coveted fellowships are awarded nationally each year, funding research focused on low and low-middle income countries. Sciaudone will use the two-year … Read more

• 

  Faculty affiliates turn focus to COVID-19 treatments, prevention research

    Researchers within UNC’s School of Medicine are working tirelessly to provide knowledge to impact the current COVID-19 pandemic and future pandemics. “UNC SOM is home to many world-renowned experts on infectious disease and virology,” says Blossom Damania, Boshamer Distinguished Professor and Vice Dean for Research at the UNC School of Medicine. “We are very … Read more

Education