Albert C Shaw, MD, PhD

Albert C. Shaw, MD, PhD, is an infectious diseases specialist who provides care for individuals with a variety of infections, including those that affect older adults. He focuses on how age-related changes in the body’s defenses can make people more vulnerable to infection and immune system complications.

As a professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Shaw studies the ways in which the immune system’s first line of defense, called the innate immune system, changes with age. This includes investigating how these shifts might reduce vaccine effectiveness and contribute to ongoing, low-grade inflammation that can harm overall health. He also examines how circadian rhythms—biological processes that follow a 24-hour cycle—may regulate immune responses, as well as how certain treatments for opioid use disorder might influence inflammation.

Dr. Shaw earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and completed a doctorate at Harvard University. He then pursued an internal medicine residency and an infectious diseases fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital.