Dr. Michael Ison was born in St. Petersburg, Florida. He attended Grinnell College where we received his Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry and Chinese Studies before returning to Florida where he obtain is medical degree at the University of South Florida College of Medicine. He then completed his Internal Medicine Residency and General Internal Medicine Fellowship at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, Oregon. He then obtained his Master of Science in Health Evaluation Sciences and did his Infectious Diseases Fellowship at the University of Virginia. During his fellowship, he was mentored by Drs. Fredrick Hayden, Larisa Gubareva, and Tom Brachiale. His research focused on the immunopathogenesis of influenza and its treatment in immunosuppressed and hospitalized patients. He developed a immunocompromised mouse model of influenza to study the development of antiviral resistance. In addition, he did studies of the pharmacokinetics and outcomes of treatment with oseltamivir, zanamivir, and rimantidine in hospitalized patients. After leaving the University of Virginia, he undertook additional training in Transplant Infectious Diseases at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School under the mentorship of Dr. Jay A. Fishman. He then joined the faculty of the Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Organ Transplantation at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in 2005. He is currently the Medical Director of the Transplant & Immunocompromised Host Infectious Diseases Service, Northwestern University Comprehensive Transplant Center.

He has continued to be a leader in the respiratory viruses research arena. He has been the first author of the only two prospective interventional studies in hospitalized patients as well as a lead investigator for studies to determine how to prevent and treat influenza in immunocompromised patients. He has recently been asked to advice the President's H1N1 Subcommittee, NIH, and BARDA on issues related to influenza in hospitalized and immunocompromised patients. Additionally, he is considered an expert in adenovirus infections in immunosuppressed patients.

He, too, is heavily involved in other research and leadership positions in the Transplant Infectioius Diseases arena. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the American Society for Transplantation's Transplant Infectious Diseases Study Group and chaired of the United Network for Organ Sharing's Disease Transmission Advisory Committee from 2006 - 2010. He is the Chair of the Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability.