Sunanda Gaur, MD

Associate Member, Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research

Professor of Pediatrics
Director, Adult and Pediatric Clinical Research Centers
Director, SATHI
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Dr. Sunanda Gaur is a Professor of Pediatrics at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School specializing in Infectious Diseases. Working on Pediatric AIDS since 1983, Dr. Gaur has had a unique carrier bookended by two global pandemics, HIV and COVId-19. She served as the director of the Robert Wood Johnson AIDS Program for almost three decades and is considered a leading voice on Pediatric HIV in NJ serving as Chair of the Family-Centered HIV Care Network. She has overseen over 40 NIH sponsored HIV clinical trials and her team was the first to document child-to-child transmission of HIV.

In 2006, Dr. Gaur was appointed Director of Pediatric Clinical Research Center (PCRC) at RWJMS. Under her leadership the center has seen tremendous growth; the number of trials increasing from 1-2 /year to 30-40 trials/year. Subsequently, in 2016 she assumed directorship of the Adult CRC spearheading exponential growth in the number, diversity and complexity of clinical trials. Since 2018, Dr. Gaur is co-leading the Clinical Trials Office of the Rutgers NIH funded Clinical and Translational Science Award. Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, the CRC rapidly pivoted to activate a large number of COVID-19 studies including an 800-participant health care worker study, several COVID-19 therapeutic trials as well as the J&J and Pfizer vaccine trials.

Throughout her career, Dr. Gaur has received over 25 million dollars in grants, published over 75 papers, and has maintained a deep interest in health disparities as the founding director of the South Asian Total Health Initiative (SATHI), a Rutgers based community health research and outreach initiative founded in 2007.