Dr. Leong is Edith Rieva and Hyman S. Trilling Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology at Tufts University School of Medicine. His research focuses on the interaction of pathogenic Escherichia coli, Borrelia burgdorferi (the Lyme disease spirochete) and Streptococcus pneumoniae with host immune and epithelial cells in order to understand the infectious process and develop novel therapies to prevent or treat these infections.