Dr. Contreras holds a medical degree from Universidad Nacional de Colombia, School of Medicine in Santa Fe de Bogotá, Colombia. He received internal medicine residency training and a fellowship in infectious disease at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, where he also obtained a master’s degree in epidemiology. He then completed a T32 NIH research fellowship in emerging infectious diseases with a focus in data science and clinical informatics at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

Dr. Contreras’ academic and clinical work centers on the intersection of infectious diseases and immunocompromised populations. He has led studies on the epidemiology and outcomes of infections in solid organ transplant recipients, including respiratory viral infections such as RSV and CMV, as well as bloodstream infections caused by multidrug-resistant organisms. His research also explores antimicrobial resistance mechanisms and treatment optimization for pathogens such as vancomycin-resistant enterococci and ESBL-producing Enterobacterales.

In addition to transplant-related infections, Dr. Contreras has a longstanding interest in HIV immunology, particularly B-cell dysfunction and vaccine response in perinatally infected children and adolescents. He has investigated the durability of vaccine-induced immunity and strategies for improving immune protection in this vulnerable population. His work frequently incorporates advanced methodologies, including large-scale electronic health record analyses, propensity score matching, and machine learning models to predict clinical outcomes and guide therapeutic decisions. Earlier in his career, he contributed to global antimicrobial resistance surveillance and infection control initiatives in Latin America.