Skip to Main Content

Inci Yildirim, MD, PhD, MSc

Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Disease) and of Public Health (Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases)
DownloadHi-Res Photo

Additional Titles

Section Chief, Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Global Health, Pediatrics

Medical Director, Transplant Infectious Diseases

Director, Pediatric Vaccine Trials Program

Lead, Network of Vaccine Initiatives

Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health

Member, Center for Infection and Immunity

About

Titles

Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Disease) and of Public Health (Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases)

Section Chief, Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Global Health, Pediatrics; Medical Director, Transplant Infectious Diseases; Director, Pediatric Vaccine Trials Program ; Lead, Network of Vaccine Initiatives; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health; Member, Center for Infection and Immunity

Biography

Inci Yildirim, MD, PhD, is a pediatric infectious disease specialist and a vaccinologist whose clinical work and research focus on infections and vaccine induced immune response in children with hematopoietic stem cell or organ transplantation and sickle cell disease.

Dr. Yildirim is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Global Health in the Section of Infectious Diseases and Global Health and an Associate Professor of Public Health in the Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at Yale School of Public Health (YSPH). She is also an affiliated faculty at Yale Institute of Global Health and Yale Center for Infection and Immunity. She serves as the Medical Director of Transplant Infectious Diseases at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital. Dr. Yildirim is the founding Director of Yale Pediatric Vaccine Trials Program. She teaches EMD546 Vaccines and Vaccine Preventable Diseases course at YSPH.

Appointments

Other Departments & Organizations

Education & Training

PhD
Boston University, Epidemiology
Residency
Yale School of Medicine (2013)
MSc
Hacettepe University, School of Public Health
MD
Hacettepe University, School of Medicine

Research

Overview

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)

Adaptive Immunity; Immunity, Innate

Research at a Glance

Yale Co-Authors

Frequent collaborators of Inci Yildirim's published research.

Publications

Featured Publications

Clinical Trials

Current Trials

Clinical Care

Overview

Inci Yildirim, MD, PhD, is a pediatric infectious disease specialist and a vaccinologist whose clinical work focuses on infections and vaccinations in transplant patients.

“These are children who received organ or bone marrow transplants and are immunocompromised. My interest is in how they respond or do not respond to vaccines and how we can maximize the protection against infectious diseases using vaccination in this vulnerable group of children,” she says.

For example, Dr. Yildirim cares for children who went through organ or bone marrow transplantation or received chemotherapy. “Their immune systems are weak and they are prone to infections and then cannot control an infection if they get one,” she explains. “Unfortunately, vaccines don’t work as well in these kids as they do in otherwise healthy children. This requires a different handling of how you give the vaccines, how you protect them from infections, and how you manage an infection if they get one.”

The work, she says, is close to her heart. “These kids have gone or are going through really a hard period; they survive transplant and many other things, and I don’t want an infection to be a limit for their return to normal life similar to other kids,” she says.

The reward of being able to help her patients, Dr. Yildirim adds, is on a global scale. “If you can prevent disease and mortality among kids with vaccines, it is the most successful intervention in medicine in the 20thcentury after clean drinking water,” she says.

An active researcher, she says one of the highlights of her work is that there are always new questions to explore and improvements to make. “Right now in the lab, we are studying how our immune system and our bodies respond to the COVID-19 vaccine,” says Dr. Yildirim, who is an investigator for the multi-institutional Covid-19 Prevention Network’s (CoVPN) Moderna mRNA-1273 clinical trial for children 6 months to 12 years of age.

“I am thankful for all families and children who have been overwhelmingly interested in our study and helping us to find a safe and effective vaccine for our younger ones” she says. "I like working in pediatrics. Children are our future and if you have healthy youth, they will be healthy adults.”

The development of COVID-19 vaccines has been an amazing feat, Dr. Yildirim says. “During the urgency of the pandemic we have used the skills and information we have accumulated to create successful vaccines,” she says. “It’s the product of collaboration among scientists, physicians, patients and most importantly participants in the clinical vaccine trials. I think the paradigm will change with how we work with vaccines going forward. I am very hopeful we will have safe and effective vaccines for many other infectious pathogens in the near future.”

Clinical Specialties

Pediatrics; Pediatric Infectious Diseases

Fact Sheets

Board Certifications

  • Pediatrics

    Certification Organization
    AB of Pediatrics
    Original Certification Date
    2016

Yale Medicine News

Get In Touch

Contacts

Academic Office Number
Secondary Academic Office Number
Appointment Number
Clinical Inquiry Number
Clinic Fax Number
Mailing Address

Pediatric Infectious Diseases

PO Box 208064

New Haven, United States 06520-8064

United States

Administrative Support

Locations

  • Yildirim Lab

    Lab

    Seamco Building

    464 Congress Avenue, Ste 0239

    New Haven, CT 06519

  • Patient Care Locations

    Are You a Patient? View this doctor's clinical profile on the Yale Medicine website for information about the services we offer and making an appointment.