Alan L. Rothman

Biography

Dr. Rothman is an infectious diseases physician who has been conducting research on immunity and pathogenesis of viral diseases in humans for over 30 years. He has long-standing collaborations with colleagues in the US and internationally in Thailand, Europe, and Latin America. He has served on advisory committees for the National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization.

Research

Dr. Rothman’s research involves both clinical and basic research studies on pathogenesis and immunity of emerging and re-emerging viral infections. A focus of his research has been defining the viral and immune mechanisms involved in acute dengue virus (DENV) infection and their relationship to the viral hemorrhagic fever syndrome.

Dr. Rothman’s laboratory at URI examines viral replication and protein expression, the effects of infection on host cells, and the characteristics of virus-specific antibodies and T lymphocytes. Experiments are conducted using a variety of mammalian and insect cell cultures. Through its extensive international collaborations, the laboratory studies specimens from humans exposed to DENV and vaccines. The techniques employed include reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), Western blotting, fluorescence microscopy, immunoassays, and flow cytometry.

Education

B.A., Boston University
M.D., Boston University School of Medicine

Selected Publications

  • Rothman AL, Friberg H. Dengue Fever Vaccines: Progress and Challenges. Annu Rev Pharmacol Toxicol 2025. doi: 10.1146/annurev-pharmtox-062124-040711. PMID: 40825354.
  • Hamins-Puértolas M, Buddhari D, Salje H, Huang AT, Hunsawong T, Cummings DAT, Fernandez S, Farmer A, Kaewhiran S, Khampaen D, Srikiatkhachorn A, Iamsirithaworn S, Waickman A, Thomas SJ, Endy T, Rothman AL, Anderson KB, Rodriguez-Barraquer I. Linking multiple serological assays to infer dengue virus infections from paired samples using mixture models. PLoS Comput Biol 2025; 21:e1013708. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1013708. PMID: 41289317; PMCID: PMC12646409.
  • Ashraf U, Chakraborty S, Scallan C, Lo NC, Alera MT, Farmer A, Cabalfin-Chua MN, Michael NL, Rothman AL, Wang TT. Afucosylation of anti-dengue IgG is associated with enhanced susceptibility to dengue virus infection postvaccination. Sci Transl Med. 2025 Sep 24;17(817):eadx7231. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.adx7231. Epub 2025 Sep 24. PMID: 40991727; PMCID: PMC12543083.
  • Vista FES, Dalmacio LMM, Solis PR, Maramba-Lazarte CNC, Lang DM, Rothman AL, de Paz-Silava SLM. Antibody responses to Japanese encephalitis virus and dengue virus serotype 2 in children from an orthoflavivirus endemic region after IMOJEV vaccination. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2025; 19:e0013550. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0013550. PMID: 40982537; PMCID: PMC12463327.
  • Hardy CSC, Bahr LE, Rothman AL, Anderson KB, Barba-Spaeth G, Weiskopf D, Ooi EE, Marques ETA, Bonsignori M, Barrett ADT, Kirkpatrick BD, Castanha PMS, Hamins-Puertolas M, Christofferson RC, Dimopoulos G, Oliveira F, Chiang LW, Ko AI, Gunale B, Kulkarni P, Perkins TA, Dorigatti I, Stewart T, Shaw J, Johansson MA, Thomas SJ, Waickman AT. Proceedings of the second annual dengue endgame summit: A call to action. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2025; 19:e0013028. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0013028. PMID: 40294026; PMCID: PMC12036847.
  • Huang AT, Buddhari D, Kaewhiran S, Iamsirithaworn S, Khampaen D, Farmer A, Fernandez S, Thomas SJ, Rodriguez-Barraquer I, Hunsawong T, Srikiatkhachorn A, Ribeiro Dos Santos G, O’Driscoll M, Hamins-Puertolas M, Endy T, Rothman AL, Cummings DAT, Anderson K, Salje H. Reconciling heterogeneous dengue virus infection risk estimates from different study designs. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2025; 122:e2411768121. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2411768121. Epub 2024 Dec 31. PMID: 39739790; PMCID: PMC11725863.