Neima Briggs, M.D., Ph.D. Titles and Appointments Assistant Professor Schools Medical School Departments Internal Medicine | Public Health You have reached the Academic Profile. For more information on the doctor and patient care, please visit the clinical profile. Biography Neima Briggs, M.D., Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern and a member of its Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine. Dr. Briggs holds a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Texas at Austin. He earned his medical degree and his doctorate in immunology through the Medical Scientist Training Program at UTHealth Houston, where he conducted research with Peter Hotez, M.D., Ph.D., and Jagan Sastry, Ph.D. He completed internal medicine residency training and an infectious diseases fellowship in the Physician-Scientist Training program at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where he then conducted postdoctoral research in the Department of Immunobiology with Joseph Craft, M.D. Prior to joining the UT Southwestern faculty in 2026, Dr. Briggs served as an Instructor of Medicine at Yale, a Visiting Scientist in Parasitology at Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil, and Visiting Scientist in Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Briggs’ research focuses on immunology and infectious diseases, with an emphasis on understanding host immune responses to parasitic helminth infections and translating these insights into clinical applications. His work explores immune mechanisms and host–pathogen interactions, particularly how T- and B-cell responses shape protection, tolerance, and susceptibility during chronic and recurrent infections. He has contributed to studies on vaccine development for helminths, including novel antigen and mRNA-based approaches, as well as the identification of serologic markers for diagnosing parasitic diseases. In addition, his research includes advancing rapid diagnostic platforms for pathogen detection and investigating broader immunologic phenomena such as gut antibody responses and immune modulation. Collectively, his work integrates fundamental immunology with translational research to support the development of vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutic strategies for neglected tropical diseases. Dr. Briggs has received multiple distinctions for his research and global health work, including recognition as a Fulbright Scholar (Spain), The Wit Family Distinguished Scholar in Inflammation Science, and recipient of the Yale Physician-Scientist Development Award, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund/ASTMH Tropical Medicine Fellowship (Brazil), the Patterson Trust Mentored Research Award, and the ASTMH Benjamin H. Kean Fellowship (Honduras). Dr. Briggs is an active member of several professional organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, the American Association of Immunologists, the American College of Physicians, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Education Graduate School The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sci (2018), Immunology Medical Education McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (2019), M.D. Residency Yale University School of Medicine (2021), Internal Medicine Fellowship Yale University School of Medicine (2025), Infectious Diseases Research Interest Diagnostic Platforms for Pathogen Detection Immune Mechanisms and Host-Pathogen Interactions Immunology and Infectious Diseases Vaccine Development and Therapeutic Strategies for Neglected Tropical Diseases Publications Featured Publications A Honduran Prevalence Study on Soil-Transmitted Helminths Highlights Serological Antibodies to Tm-WAP49 as a Diagnostic Marker for Exposure to Human Trichuriasis. Briggs N, Versteeg L, Mejia R, Pollet J, Villar MJ, Zhan B, Segal G, Novak S, Lenihan P, Musgrave P, Ellis V, Coello CF, Sastry KJ, Craft J, Hotez PJ, Bottazzi ME, Am J Trop Med Hyg 2025 May 112 5 1017-1025 Altering the intracellular trafficking of Necator americanus GST-1 antigen yields novel hookworm mRNA vaccine candidates. De Oliveira AS, Versteeg L, Briggs N, Adhikari R, Villar MJ, Redd JR, Hotez P, Bottazzi ME, Pollet J, PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2025 Jan 19 1 e0012809 The amalgam of naive CD4+ T cell transcriptional states is reconfigured by helminth infection to dampen the amplitude of the immune response. Even Z, Meli AP, Tyagi A, Vidyarthi A, Briggs N, de Kouchkovsky DA, Kong Y, Wang Y, Waizman DA, Rice TA, De Kumar B, Wang X, Palm NW, Craft J, Basu MK, Ghosh S, Rothlin CV, Immunity 2024 Aug 57 8 1893-1907.e6 Mucocutaneous Leishmaniasis in a Pregnant Immigrant. Briggs N, Wei BM, Ahuja C, Baker C, Foppiano Palacios C, Lee E, O'Grady N, Singanamala S, Singh K, Bandaranayake TD, Cohen JM, Damsky W, Davis MW, Mejia R, Nelson CA, Topal JE, Azar MM, Open Forum Infect Dis 2022 Aug 9 8 ofac360 Advances in rapid diagnostics for bloodstream infections. Briggs N, Campbell S, Gupta S, Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis 2021 Jan 99 1 115219 Early but not late convalescent plasma is associated with better survival in moderate-to-severe COVID-19. Briggs N, Gormally MV, Li F, Browning SL, Treggiari MM, Morrison A, Laurent-Rolle M, Deng Y, Hendrickson JE, Tormey CA, Desruisseaux MS, PLoS One 2021 16 7 e0254453 Trichuris muris whey acidic protein induces type 2 protective immunity against whipworm. Briggs N, Wei J, Versteeg L, Zhan B, Keegan B, Damania A, Pollet J, Hayes KS, Beaumier C, Seid CA, Leong J, Grencis RK, Bottazzi ME, Sastry KJ, Hotez PJ, PLoS Pathog 2018 Aug 14 8 e1007273 The Hygiene Hypothesis and Its Inconvenient Truths about Helminth Infections. Briggs N, Weatherhead J, Sastry KJ, Hotez PJ, PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2016 Sep 10 9 e0004944 Advancing a multivalent 'Pan-anthelmintic' vaccine against soil-transmitted nematode infections. Zhan B, Beaumier CM, Briggs N, Jones KM, Keegan BP, Bottazzi ME, Hotez PJ, Expert Rev Vaccines 2014 Mar 13 3 321-31 Stacking nonenzymatic circuits for high signal gain. Chen X, Briggs N, McLain JR, Ellington AD Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2013 Apr 110 14 5386-91 Results 1-10 of 10 1 Honors & Awards Infectious Diseases Case Conference of the YearYale School of Medicine (2021) Best PhD Dissertation AwardUTHealth Houston (2019) First Place, Elsevier Clinical Research CompetitionAmerican Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (2018) President's Research ScholarshipMD Anderson / UTHealth Houston (2018) Top Ranked Poster AwardACTS National Conference (2017) Fulbright Scholar in Biomedical SciencesUTHealth Houston (2011-2019) Professional Associations/Affiliations American Association for the Advancement of Science American Association of Immunologists American College of Physicians American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Infectious Diseases Society of America
