Dr Ehrlich is Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, and Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Drexel University College of Medicine (DUCoM) in Philadelphia, PA, USA. His scientific career has been characterized by his integration of technologies and ideas across a broad spectrum of academic and clinical disciplines and the continuous development of highly significant advances that span a range of disciplines including diagnostics, informatics, artificial intelligence, infectious diseases, genetic diseases, wound healing and evolutionary biology. Dr Ehrlich was elected a fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Microbiology based on his works in the development of molecular diagnostics, genomic technologies, and evolutionary modelling of chronic bacterial pathogenesis. Recently he was chosen as member of the American Society of Microbiology’s Distinguished Lecture (ASMDL) panel.
Professor Ehrlich's career has been distinguished by his conceptual and technical advances in molecular medicine and evolutionary biology for more than forty years - spanning the eras of the AIDS and COVID-19 pandemics - both of which he has materially affected by his insights and works. He currently serves as the founder and director of three Research Centers of Excellence within the Institute for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Disease at DUCoM: the Center for Genomic Sciences (CGS); the Center for Advanced Microbial Processing (CAMP); and the Center for Surgical Infections and Biofilms. He also directs Drexel University’s Core Genomics Facility and the Meta-Omics Shared Resource for the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center – an NCI-designated Cancer Center based at Thomas Jefferson University. Most recently he was charged with the design and operationalization of Drexel University’s COVID-19 testing facility for which he and his team have recently received both CLIA and CAP certifications as a high complexity molecular diagnostics laboratory. For these accomplishments he has been appointed as the Executive Director of the University’s Center for Molecular Diagnostics and Head of Molecular Pathology within Drexel Medicine Diagnostics
Dr Ehrlich began his career as one of the founders of the field of clinical molecular diagnostics (MDx), having been involved in the original application of PCR for the detection of human retroviruses beginning in 19851,2. His vision and expertise for DNA-based diagnostics came together in 1989 when he was hired to launch what became the MDx Division at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). For his exemplary contributions towards the development of MDx and his applications of these technologies to long-standing scientific paradoxes (for which he developed a new set of 'universal truths') he was awarded early tenure at Pitt. In addition, he also authored the first textbook for infectious disease MDx3, and together with a team of like-minded pioneers he was one of the founders of the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) for which he served as one of the first co-chairs of the AMP ID section. At the CGS, his signature center, he and his teams have pioneered many of the genomic and MDX technologies that have revolutionized these fields over the past three decades including microsatellite mapping, microarrays, GWAS, PCR-ESI-TOF-MS, next generation sequencing, third generation sequencing technologies, AI-based methods of gene interrogation and meta-omics4-16 Over the past quarter century, CGS scientists have utilized a broad array of comparative genomic techniques and bioinformatic tools, many developed in-house10,12,14-16, 18-23, to characterize pangenomes, distributed genes, and to identify and characterize both virulence genes within pathogens, and susceptibility genes to pathogens within their hosts.
Dr Ehrlich counts among his major contributions to science the re-writing of much of our understanding of chronic bacterial pathogenesis. This began with his promulgation of the biofilm paradigm to explain many facets of chronic mucosal microbial infections. This work originated with his explorations into chronic middle-ear disease in children5,7,8.11 which he has since repeatedly generalized such that it is now widely accepted that the vast majority of all chronic microbial infections are biofilm-associated13,17. He also advanced the Distributed Genome Hypothesis to align bacterial genomics and evolution with the enormous phenotypic and clinical variability among strains within a bacterial species, which together with the biofilm paradigm form the bases for his rubric of Bacterial Plurality10,12, 14,15,19,23. More recently he has developed the concept of bacterial population-level virulence factors and has used both statistical genetics and multiple artificial intelligence platforms for the first time within the field of bacterial genomics to identify distributed genes that are associated with tissue tropisms and virulence18-20. These computational methodologies provide non-biased, top-down approaches to prioritize the annotation of hypothetical genes. Coincident with the relocation of his research enterprise to DUCOM he founded CAMP which functions as a collaborative multi-discipline facility for exploitation of a suite of technological advances, many developed within the CGS, which permit the identification, cloning, heterologous expression, and biochemical verification of commercially important biosynthetic and biodegradative pathways from what he refers to as the “Genomic Dark Matter”16. Recently, based on his experience with CAMP he was asked to create and direct the Meta-Omics Core Facility of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, an NCI-designated Consortium Cancer Center between Thomas Jefferson University and Drexel University. Dr Ehrlich’s latest work is on characterizing the in situ evolution of virulence among bacterial pathogens during the chronic infectious process and the development of high resolution microbiome analyses21,22 which serve as species-specific, pan-domian, MDx assays, and on the development of novel anti-biofilm drugs24 targeting the bacterial stringent response.
1.Kwok S, Mack DH, Mullis KB, Poiesz B, Ehrlich G, Blair D, Friedman-Kien A, and Sninsky JJ. Identification of human immunodeficiency virus sequences by using in vitro enzymatic amplification and oligomer cleavage detection. J. Virology, 61:1690-1694, May 1987.
2.Ehrlich, GD, Clinical and Molecular Parameter of Human Retroviral Infections, Dissertation Abstracts
3.Ehrlich GD, and Greenberg SJ. PCR-Based Diagnostics in Infectious Disease. Boston: Blackwell Scientific Publications, 1994, 697 pages.
4.Preston RA, Post J, Keats B, Aston C, Ferrell RE, Priest J, Nouri N, Losken HW, Morris CA, Hurtt MR, Mulvihill J, and Ehrlich GD. A gene for Crouzon craniofacial dysostosis maps to the long arm of chromosome 10. Nature Genetics 7:149-153, 1994
5.Post JC, Preston RA, Aul JJ, Larkins-Pettigrew M, Rydquist-White J, Anderson KW, Wadowsky RM, Reagan DR, Walker ES, Kingsley LA, Magit AE, Ehrlich G.D. Molecular analysis of bacterial pathogens in otitis media with effusion. JAMA 273(20):1598-604, 1995
6.Whitcomb DC, Gorry MC, Preston RA, Furey WF, Sossenheimer JJ, Ulrich CD, Martin SP, Gates LK Jr., Amann ST, Toskes PP, Liddle R, McGrath K, Uomo G, Post JC, and Ehrlich GD* Hereditary pancreatitis is caused by a mutation in the cationic trypsinogen gene. Nature Genetics 14:145, 1996.
7.Rayner, M.G., Zhang, Y., Gorry, M.C., Chen, Y., Post, J.C., and Ehrlich, G.D. Evidence of bacterial metabolic activity in culture-negative otitis media with effusion. JAMA 279:296-299, 1998.
8.Ehrlich GD, Veeh R, Wang X, Costerton JW, Hayes JD, Hu FZ, Daigle BJ, Ehrlich MD, Post JC. Mucosal Biofilm Formation on Middle-ear Mucosa in the Chinchilla Model of Otitis Media. JAMA 287:1710-1715, 2002.
9.Sauer, K., Camper, A.K., Ehrlich, G.D., Costerton, J.W., and Davies, D.G. Pseudomonas aeruginosa displays Multiple Phenotypes during Development of a Biofilm. Journal of Bacteriology 184:1140-1154, 2002.
10.Ehrlich GD, Hu FZ, Shen K, Stoodley P, Post JC, Bacterial Plurality as a General Mechanism Driving Persistence in Chronic Infections. Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research 437:20-24, 2005.
11.Hall-Stoodley L, Hu FZ, Stoodley P, Nistico L, Link TR, Burrows A, Post JC, Ehrlich GD, and Kerschner KE Direct Detection of Bacterial Biofilms on the Middle-Ear Mucosa of Children with Chronic Otitis Media. JAMA 296:202-211, 2006.
12.Hogg JS, Hu FZ, Janto B, Boissy R, Gladitz J, Swierczek N, Hayes J, Keefe R, Yu S, Post JC, and Ehrlich GD. Characterization and Modelling of the Haemophilus influenzae Core and Supra-Genome based on the Complete Genomic Sequences of Rd and 12 clinical Nontypeable16 Strains. Genome Biology. 8(6)R103, 2007
13.Wolcott RD, and Ehrlich GD. Biofilms and Chronic Infections. 2008 JAMA Jun 11;299(22):2682-4.
14.Hiller NL, Ahmed A, Powell E, Eutsey RE, Earl J, Martin D, Janto B, Hogg JS, Boissy R, Barbadora K, Post JC, Hu FZ, and Ehrlich GD. Generation of Genic Diversity among Streptococcus pneumoniae Strains via Horizontal Gene Transfer during a Chronic Polyclonal Pediatric Infection. PLoS Pathogens 6(9): e1001108, 2010
15.Ehrlich, G.D.^, Ahmed, A., Earl, J., Hiller, N.L., Costerton, J.W., Stoodley, P., Post, J.C., DeMeo, P., and Hu, FZ. The Distributed Genome Hypothesis as a Rubric for Understanding Evolution in situ During Chronic Infectious Processes. FEMS Immunology and Medical Microbiology. 2010 Aug;59(3):269-79.
16.Rath CM, Janto B, Earl J, Ahmed A, Hu FZ, Hiller NL, Dahlgren M, Kreft M, Yu F, Wolff JJ, Kweon HK, Christiainsen MA, Håkansson K, Williams RM, Ehrlich GD, Sherman, DH. Meta-omic characterization of the marine invertebrate microbial consortium that produces the chemotherapeutic natural product ET-743. ACS Chemical Biology 6(11):1244-56, 2011.
17.Ehrlich, G.D., DeMeo, P., Costerton J.W., and Winkler H. (Eds) Culture-Negative Orthopedic Biofilm Infections. Springer Verlag Series on Biofilms. 144 pages, 47 illustrations. ISBN: 978-3-642-29553-9 (Print) 978-3-642-29554-6 (Online) 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29554-6
18.Kress-Bennett J, Hiller N., Eutsey R, PowellE., Longwell MJ, Hillman T, Blackwell T, ByersB., Post J., Hu, FZ, Ehrlich G.*, and Janto B*. Identification and Characterization of msf, a Novel Virulence Factor in Haemophilus influenzae PLoS ONE 11(3):e0149891, 2016.
19.Lee A H-Y, Flibotte, S, Inha S, Ehrlich RI, Balashov S, Mell JC, Ehrlich GD, Zlosnik J, Mell JC, and Nislow C. The Natural History of Burkholderia cenocepacia infection in cystic fibrosis patients. Genome Research 27:1-14, 2017.
20.Moleres J, Fernández-Calvet A. Ehrlich R., Martí S, Pérez-Regidor L, Euba B, Rodríguez-Arce I, Balashov S, SantosS., Liñares J, Ardanuy,C, Martín-Santamaría S Ehrlich,GD*, Mell JC*, and Garmendia L* Antagonistic pleiotropy in a bifunctional fatty acid transporter during adaptation of Haemophilu influenzae to chronic luing infection associated with COPD. mBio 9(5), Sep 25; 2018.
21.Earl, J.P., Krol, J., Balashov, S.V., Bhat, A., Hammond, J., Sen, B., Limbo, J, Reed, D.R., Cohen, N., Ehrlich, G.D*., and Mell, J.C*. Development and Validation of Ultra-High-Fidelity Microbiome Analysis Pipeline based on full 16S Gene Sequencing on the PacBio. Microbiome 2018 Oct 23;6(1):190, 2018.
22.Greathouse L, White J, Vargas A, Bliskovsky V, Beck J, von Muhlinen N, Polley E, Bowman E, Khan M, Robles A, Ryan B, Dzutsev A, Trinchieri G, Pineda M, Bilke S, Meltze, P, Hokenstad L, Stickrod T, Walther-Antonio M, Earl JP, Mel, JC, Krol J, Balashov S, Bhat A, Ehrlich GD, Valm A, Deming C, Conlan S, Oh J, Jegre J and Harris C. Microbiome-TP53 Gene Interaction in Human Lung Cancer. Genome Biology 19(1):123, 2018.
23.Innamorati KA, Earl JP, Aggarwal S, Ehrlich GD, Hiller, N The bacterial guide to designing a diversified portfolio. In: Tettelin H, & Medinie D (eds.), The Pangenome (pp 51-88) Cham, Switzerland: Springer. 2020
24.Hall DC Jr, Krol JE, Cahill JP, Ji H-F, and Ehrlich GD. The Development of Pipeline for the Identification and Validation of Small-Molecular RelA Inhibitors for Use as Anti-Biofilm Drugs . MDPI Microorganisms 8(9):E1310, 2020.