Jeffrey Bender, M.D.

Jeffrey Bender, M.D., sees being a pediatrician as the best job in the world, and he relishes the opportunity to apply his facility with science to help children. His role as an infectious-disease expert is akin to that of a detective, following clues from a patient’s exposures and symptoms to identify and eliminate infection. For him, collaboration is fundamental to care — including not only the full medical team but also patients and their families.

Dr. Bender is a physician-scientist who had 40 peer-reviewed scientific publications to his credit when he joined City of Hope in 2023. His research examines the community of microbes that inhabit the human gut, aims to prevent infection in pediatric hospitals and explores how the tools of microbiology can improve the deployment of antibiotics. Signature investigations include a Science Translational Medicine study profiling how HIV infection in mothers affects the microbiomes of uninfected infants and a Frontiers in Nutrition study reporting on how immunity to COVID-19 from vaccine boosters can pass from mother to infant through breast milk.

In his prior appointment as a clinical associate professor at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the University of Southern California, Dr. Bender earned awards for teaching, innovation and excellence in service to patients. He previously served as an associate physician at Southern California Kaiser Permanente and a clinical instructor in pediatrics at the University of Utah. He has been named a “Top Doctor” by Los Angeles Magazine and Pasadena Magazine numerous times.

Away from the clinic and the lab, Dr. Bender spends time with his family, enjoying sports, music and travel whenever the chance arises. 
 

• Ampofo K, Gesteland PH, Bender J, Mills M, Daly J, et al. Epidemiology, complications, and cost of hospitalization in children with laboratory-confirmed influenza infection. Pediatrics. 2006; 118(6):2409-17. PMID:17142526. [My contribution: Investigation- data collection, data analysis, Writing- review and editing]
• Blaschke AJ, Bender J, Byington CL, Korgenski K, Daly J, et al. Gordonia species: emerging pathogens in pediatric patients that are identified by 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing. Clinical infectious diseases: an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. 2007; 45(4):483-6. PMID:17638199. [Investigation- data collection, data analysis, Writing- review and editing]
• Bender JM, Ampofo K, Korgenski K, Daly J, Pavia AT, et al. Pneumococcal necrotizing pneumonia in Utah: does serotype matter? Clinical infectious diseases: an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. 2008; 46(9):1346-52. PMID: 18419434.
• Petti CA, Simmon KE, Bender J, Blaschke A, Webster KA, et al. Culture-Negative intracerebral abscesses in children and adolescents from Streptococcus anginosus group infection: a case series. Clinical infectious diseases: an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. 2008; 46(10):1578-80. PMID: 18419492 [Investigation- clinical data, Writing- review and editing]
• Byington CL, Bender JM, Ampofo K, Pavia AT, Korgenski K, et al. Tularemia with vesicular skin lesions may be mistaken for infection with herpes viruses. Clinical infectious diseases: an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. 2008; 47(1):e4-6. PMID: 18491968 [Investigation- clinical data, Writing- primary author and editing]
• Ampofo K, Bender J, Sheng X, Korgenski K, Daly J, et al. Seasonal invasive pneumococcal disease in children: role of preceding respiratory viral infection. Pediatrics. 2008; 122(2):229-37. PMID: 18676537 [Investigation- clinical data, Writing- review and editing]
• Bender JM, Ampofo K, Sheng X, Pavia AT, Cannon-Albright L, et al. Parapneumonic empyema deaths during past century, Utah. Emerging infectious diseases. 2009;15(1):44-8. PMID: 19116048.
• She RC, Simmon KE, Bender JM, Ampofo K, Petti CA. Mollicute infections in neonates. The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal. 2009; 28(3):248-50. PMID: 19165128. [Conceptualization, Investigation clinical data, Writing - review and editing]
• Bender JM, Ampofo K, Gesteland P, Stoddard GJ, Nelson D, et al. Development and validation of a risk score for predicting hospitalization in children with influenza virus infection. Pediatric emergency care. 2009; 25(6):369-75. PMID: 19458562.
• Bender JM, Rand TH, Ampofo K, Pavia AT, Schober M, et al. Family clusters of variant X-linked chronic granulomatous disease. The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal. 2009; 28(6):529-33. PMID: 19483518.
• Bender JM, Ampofo K, Gesteland P, Sheng X, Korgenski K, et al. Influenza virus infection in infants less than three months of age. The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal. 2010; 29(1):6-9. PMID: 19915513.
• Bender JM, Cox CM*, Mottice S, She RC, Korgenski K, et al. Invasive Haemophilus influenzae disease in Utah children: an 11-year population-based study in the era of conjugate vaccine. Clinical infectious diseases: an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. 2010; 50(7):e41-6. PMID: 20178414.
• Hill HR, Augustine NH, Pryor RJ, Reed GH, Bagnato JD, Tebo A, Bender J, Pasi B, Chinen J, Hanson I, Wittwer C. Rapid genetic analysis of x-linked chronic granulomatous disease by high-resolution melting. The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics: JMD. 2010; 12(3):368-76. PMID: 20228266. [Conceptualization, Writing- review and editing]
• Couturier BA and Bender JM**, Schwarz MA, Pavia AT, Hanson KE, She RC. Oseltamivir-resistant influenza A 2009 H1N1 virus in immunocompromised patients. Influenza and other respiratory viruses. 2010; 4(4):199-204. PMID: 20836794
• Bender JM, Ampofo K, Byington CL, Grinsell M, Korgenski K, et al. Epidemiology of Streptococcus pneumoniae-induced hemolytic uremic syndrome in Utah children. The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal. 2010; 29(8):712-6. PMID: 20661100.