W. Conrad Liles receives Mayo Soley award
Dr. W. Conrad Liles is the recipient of the 2025 Mayo Soley Award from the Washington Association of Physicians/Western Society for Clinical Investigation (WAP/WSCI), honoring a lifetime of achievement in scientific endeavor and training of junior investigators.
Liles is currently a professor and vice chair for research in the Department of Medicine and holds adjunct appointments in the Departments of Global Health, Pharmacology, and Lab Medicine and Pathology at the University of Washington.
Research
Liles maintains an active translational research program as a principal investigator in host defense, infectious diseases, inflammation, innate immunity, sepsis, malaria, immunodeficiency disorders, and immunomodulatory therapy. He is a member of the UW Center for Lung Biology and Center for Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases.
He has published >350 publications, including >300 peer-reviewed manuscripts and >40 books, book chapters, monographs, and preprints. He is an inventor on 10 patents and has served on a number of NIH study sections and review panels/committees.
Honors and recognition
His contributions to academic medicine and biomedical research have been recognized nationally and internationally. He is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians and the American Clinical and Climatological Association, and a fellow of the American College of Physicians, Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the Royal College of Physicians of Canada.
At the University of Toronto, he was awarded the Canada Research Chair in Infectious Diseases and Inflammation by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. He has received the Outstanding Investigator Award from WSCI, and the Fialkow Scholar Award from UW.
Leadership
Liles is co-director of the UW Molecular Medicine Training Program and the Molecular Medicine and Mechanisms of Disease PhD Graduate Program. He is the founding director of the Sepsis Center of Research Excellence-University of Washington (SCORE-UW), established in 2020.
He has served in leadership roles for the Western Association of Physicians/Western Society for Clinical Investigation (WAP/WSCI) for over 10 years, as secretary/treasurer since 2013, and president since 2015. Previously he was executive director of the Western Student Medical Research Forum.
He has been a member of the Board of Directors for the Seattle Biomedical Research Foundation (SIBCR) since 2012 and previously served on the Board of Trustees (Vice-Chair) for the Puget Sound Blood Center/Bloodworks Northwest.
Mentorship
Liles has been the mentor/co-mentor for 14 junior faculty members and 47 graduate students and fellows. In addition, he has served as a member of the thesis committee for 70+ PhD candidates. He received the William J. Bremner Endowed Mentorship Award from the UW in 2023.
Comments from his mentors include:
“He provided career mentorship to understand the pathway to a faculty position. Now I am a R01 funded Principal Investigator with my own lab and I owe so much of my success to the research and career mentorship from Dr. Liles.”
"Dr. Liles is the physician-scientist I hope one day to become. Someone that realizes that the biggest impact one can have in science is sometimes mentoring the next generation of physician- scientists.”
“Conrad’s research mentorship was a key component of my successful development as an independent investigator.”
“Conrad has always had a strong interest in mentoring and supporting individuals from groups that are underrepresented in medicine. He has a long track record of mentoring women and individuals from under-represented ethnic groups. He is an active supporter of URiM graduate students applications for Howard Hughes fellowships and NIH administrative supplements to help financially support their PhD training.”