Rebecca M. Brotman

Rebecca M. Brotman is a Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, jointly affiliated with the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health and the Institute for Genome Sciences. Her research integrates genomics and epidemiology to study the human microbiome, focusing on urogenital health, bacterial vaginosis (BV), and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

She holds a BA from Washington University, an MPH in Reproductive Epidemiology, and a PhD in Epidemiology from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her training includes postdoctoral work at the NIH and University of Maryland.

Dr. Brotman's research examines:

• Behavioral and biological factors in BV development
• Vaginal microbiome dynamics in STI susceptibility
• Menopause-related urogenital changes
• Microbiome-metabolome interactions
• Novel BV therapies and diagnostic classifications

Her publications demonstrate consistent focus on vaginal microbiota, with methodological innovations in metagenomics and metabolomics applied to clinical outcomes.

Awards & Honors:

• ASTDA Young Investigator (2011) and Achievement Award (2023)
• GenomeWeb Young Investigator (2013)
• NAMS New Investigator (2013)
• Best Paper Award, Menopause Journal (2015)

Active NIH grants support her work on refractory BV ($4.1M), chlamydia clearance mechanisms ($3.8M), and menopausal urogenital health ($3.2M). She leads multidisciplinary teams at the Institute for Genome Sciences, collaborating on microbiome classification systems like VALENCIA.