George Thompson, M.D.

Professor of Medicine
Tupper Hall
Room 3134
Davis Campus
e-mail

Dr. George Thompson is a Professor of Medicine at the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine (Sacramento, CA) with a joint appointment in the Departments of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, and Internal Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases. Dr. Thompson specializes in the care of patients with invasive fungal infections and his research interests are in fungal epidemiology, pathophysiology, diagnostics, treatments, and outcomes.

Dr. Thompson focuses on the fungal diseases caused by Aspergillus, Candida, and Coccidioides spp. These fungi are of both regional and global importance. Aspergillus infections continue to emerge in new patient populations (eg COVID19), Candida spp are the 4th leading cause of bloodstream infections across the world and carry substantial morbidity and mortality, and coccidioidomycosis affects over 450,000 people per year within the Southwestern United States. Our studies focus on the evaluation of new antifungal agents, the pathophysiologic mechanisms of antifungal therapy, including both the development of resistance and the biologic underpinnings of adverse drug reactions.

He served as the co-chair of the National Academy of Sciences Symposium on Coccidioidomycosis in the fall of 2022, and as an advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) for fungal priority pathogens. He has additionally served on multiple international guidelines which are highly utilized by clinicians globally. He currently is the chair of the Mycoses Study Group Education Committee – and is responsible for the development of fungal educational content to practitioners globally and the design of pivotal clinical trials. He has served on both the CDC and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Special Emphasis Panels as a grant reviewer and on the FDA Antifungal and Coccidioidomycosis Advisory committees. He has also been a congressional consultant for the Valley Fever Task Force, and the Congressional Pasteur and Forward Acts focused on antifungal and antibacterial resistance.

2023 Henao-Martinez AF, Corbisiero MF, Chastain DB, Thompson GR III. "Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis clinical features and risk factors associated with increased mortality, a global research network study". Medical Mycology. View this Article

2023 Marek C, Thompson GR III, Sandhu H, Petesen G. Heidari A, Schwartz IS. "Multicentric Case Series and Literature Review of Coccidioidal Otomastoiditis". Emerging Infectious Diseases. View this Article

2023 Thompson GR III, Jenks JD, Baddley JW, Lewis JS II, Egger M, Schwartz IS, Boyer J, Patterson TF, Chen S, Pappas PG, Hoenigl M. "Fungal Endocarditis: Pathophysiology, Epidemiology, Clinical Presentation, Diagnosis, and Management". Clinical Microbiology Reviews. View this Article

2023 Benedict K, Gold JAW, Toda M, Thompson GR III, Wiederhold NP, Smith DJ. "Antifungal therapeutic drug monitoring among inpatients who received itraconazole, posaconazole, or voriconazole, United States, 2019–2021". Open Forum Infectious Diseases. View this Article

2023 Kooner L, Munoz A, Garcia A, Kaur A, Sharma R, Bustamante V, Narang V, Thompson GR III, Kuran R, Berjis A, Johnson RH, Heidari A. "Coccidioidal Pulmonary Cavitation: A New Age". Journal of Fungi. View this Article

2023 Heidari A, Sharma R, Shah M, Clement J, Donnelly M, Reynolds T, Trigg K, Johnson R, Thompson GR III. "Isavuconazole in the Treatment of Chronic Forms of Coccidioidomycosis". Clinical Infectious Diseases. View this Article

2023 Desai AN, Thompson GR III, Dodson D, Neumeister SM, Arutyunova AM, Trigg K, Blumberg D, Cohen SH. "Monkeypox Infection in Children – Infection Control Implications for Household Contacts". Open Forum Infectious Diseases. View this Article

2023 Barahona LV, Molina KC, Pedraza-Arévalo LC, Sillau S, Tagawa A, Scherger S, Chastain DB, Shapiro L, Franco-Paredes C, Tuells J, Hawkins K, Thompson GR III, Henao-Martínez AF. "Previous corticosteroid exposure associates with an increased Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia mortality among HIV-negative patients: a global research network with a follow-up multicenter case-control study". Therapeutic Advances in Infectious Disease. View this Article

2023 McHardy I, Barker B, Thompson GR III. "Review of Clinical and Laboratory Diagnostics for Coccidioidomycosis". Journal of Clinical Microbiology. View this Article

2023 Ho D, Kelley KD, Dandekar S, Cohen SH, Thompson GR III. "Case Series of End-Stage Liver Disease Patients with Severe Coccidioidomycosis". Journal of Fungi (Basel). View this Article

2023 Jenks JD, Aneke CI, Al-Obaidi MM, Eger M, Garcia L, Gaines T, Hoenigl M, Thompson GR III. "Race and ethnicity: Risk factors for fungal infections?" PLoS Pathogens. View this Article

2023 Thompson GR III, Soriano A, Cornely OA, Kullberg BJ, Kollef M, Vazquez J, Honore PM, Bassetti M, Pullman J, Chayakulkeeree M, Poromanski I, Dignani C, Das AF, Sandison T, Pappas PG on behalf of the ReSTORE trial investigators. "Rezafungin versus caspofungin for treatment of candidaemia and invasive candidiasis (ReSTORE): a multicentre, double-blind, doubledummy, randomised phase 3 trial". The Lancet. View this Article

2022 Li D, Wong LM, Allard B, Tang Y, James KS, Thompson GR III, Dandekar S, Browne EP, Li Q, Simon J, Archin JM, Margolis DM, Jiang G. "Depletion of HIV reservoir by activation of ISR signaling in resting CD4+T cells". iScience. View this Article

2022 Thompson GR III, Chiller TM. "Endemic Mycoses: Underdiagnosed and Underreported". Annals of Internal Medicine. View this Article

2022 Dunkle LM, Kotloff KL, Gay CL, Anez G, Adelglass JM, Barrat Hernanez AQ, Harper WL, Duncanson DM, McArthur MA, Florescu DF, McClelland RS, Garcia-Gragoso V, Riesenberg RA, Musante DB, Frid DL, Safirstein BE, McKenzie M, Jeanfreau RJ, Kingsley JK, Henderson JA, Lane DC, Ruiz- Palacios M, Corey L, Neuzil KM, Coombs RW, Greninger AL, Hutter J, Ake JA, Smith K, Woo W, Cho I, Glenn GM, Dubovsky F, 2019nCoV-301 Study Group [George R Thompson III]. "Efficacy and Safety of NVX-CoV2373 in Adults in the United States and Mexico". New England Journal of Medicine. View this Article

2022 Hsu AP, Korzeniowska A, Aguilar CC, Gu J, Karlins E, Oler AJ, Chen G, Reynoso GV, Davis J, Chaput A, Peng T, Sun L, Lack JB, Bays DJ, Stewart ER, Waldman SE, Powell DA, Donovan FM, Desai JV, Pouladi N, Long Priel DA, Yamanaka D, Rosenzweig SD, Niemela JE, Stoddard J, Freeman AF, Zerbe CS, Kuhns DB, Lussier YA, Olivier KN, Boucher RC, Hickman HD, Frelinger J, Fierer J, Shubitz LF, Leto TL, Thompson III GR, Galgiani JN, Lionakis MS, Holland SM. "Immunogenetics associated with severe coccidioidomycosis". JCI Insight. View this Article

2022 Shemuel J, Bays DJ, Thompson GR III, Reef S, Synder L, Freifeld A, Huppert M, Salkin D, Wilson M, Galgiani J. "Natural history of pulmonary coccidioidomycosis: Further examination of the VA-Armed Forces Database". Medical Mycology. View this Article

2022 Desai AN, Thompson GR III, Neumeister SM, Arutyunova AM, Trigg K, Cohen SH. "Compassionate Use of Tecovirimat for the Treatment of Monkeypox Infection". Journal of American Medical Association. View this Article

2022 Thompson GR III, Desai AN, Neumeister SM, Arutyunova AM, Cohen SH. "Phimosis as a Complication of Resolved Mpox". Clinical Infectious Disease. View this Article

2022 Lewis JS II, Wiederhold NP, Hakki M, Thompson GR III. "New Perspectives on Antimicrobial Agents: Isavuconazole". Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. View this Article

2022 Thompson GR III, Ampel NM, Blair JE, Donovan F, Fierer J, Galgiani JN, Heidari A, Johnson R, Stevens DA. "Controversies in the Management of Central Nervous System Coccidioidomycosis". Clinical Infectious Diseases. View this Article