Robert Pickett Dickson, MD
Associate Professor of Internal Medicine
Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Associate Fellowship Director, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
[email protected]

Available to mentor

Robert Pickett Dickson, MD
Associate Professor
  • About
  • Qualifications
  • Center Memberships
  • Research Overview
  • Recent Publications
  • About

    Dr. Dickson is an Associate Professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Michigan. Clinically, he cares for patient in the Critical Care Medicine Unit and serves as the program physician for the Washtenaw County Tuberculosis Clinic.

    Dr. Dickson serves as Associate Chief (Research) for the Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine and as Deputy Director of the Weil Institute for Critical Care Research & Innovation. He is the Program Director of the University of Michigan’s Multidisciplinary Training Program in Lung Disease (T32HL007749), and Associate Program Director (Research) for the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program.

    Qualifications
    • MD
      Duke University, Durham, 2007
    • BA
      St. John's College, Annapolis, 2000
    Center Memberships
    • Center Member
      Center for Integrative Research in Critical Care
    Research Overview

    In the lab, Dr. Dickson complements his clinical and research background in the pathophysiology of lung disease and critical illness with the culture-independent techniques of microbial ecology. Diseases of interest include the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), sepsis, pneumonia, pulmonary fibrosis, and lung transplant rejection. His laboratory specializes in integrative translational research, spanning from molecular characterization of respiratory microbiota to animal modeling of sepsis and lung injury to prospective trials of human subjects.

    Dr. Dickson's expertise in the study of the microbiome's role in critical illness and lung disease is reflected by first- and senior-author publications in Science Translational Medicine, Nature Microbiology, The Lancet, the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine and Lancet Respiratory Medicine. He has authored more than 120 publications which have been cited more than 11,000 times. His research is supported by the National Institutes for Health, the European Commission, and institutional support.

    He is a Senior Editor at Microbiome, a Specialist Editor of the European Respiratory Journal, and a member of the Editorial Boards of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine and Lancet Respiratory Medicine. He is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and a Fellow of the European Respiratory Society.

    Recent Publications See All Publications
    • Journal Article
      A quasi-experimental study of a bundled diagnostic stewardship intervention for ventilator-associated pneumonia.
      Albin OR, Troost JP, Saravolatz L, Thomas MP, Hyzy RC, Konkle MA, Weirauch AJ, Dickson RP, Rao K, Kaye KS. Clin Microbiol Infect, 2024 Apr; 30 (4): 499 - 506. DOI:10.1016/j.cmi.2023.12.023
      PMID: 38163481
    • Journal Article
      Cefepime vs Piperacillin-Tazobactam for Acute Infection in Hospitalized Adults.
      Chanderraj R, Dickson RP, Sjoding MW. JAMA, 2024 Feb 27; 331 (8): 707 - 708. DOI:10.1001/jama.2023.27897
      PMID: 38411650
    • Journal Article
      Comprehensive sampling of the lung microbiome in early-stage non-small cell lung cancer.
      Reddy RM, Lagisetty K, Lin J, Chang AC, Achreja A, Ramnath N, Nagrath D, Dickson R, Weinberg F. JTCVS Open, 2024 Feb; 17: 260 - 268. DOI:10.1016/j.xjon.2023.10.039
      PMID: 38420555
    • Journal Article
      The Lung Microbiome Predicts Mortality and Response to Azithromycin in Lung Transplant Patients with Chronic Rejection.
      Combs MP, Luth JE, Falkowski NR, Wheeler DS, Walker NM, Erb-Downward JR, Wakeam E, Sjoding MW, Dunlap DG, Admon AJ, Dickson RP, Lama VN. Am J Respir Crit Care Med, 2024 Jan 25; DOI:10.1164/rccm.202308-1326OC
      PMID: 38271553
    • Journal Article
      Commensal Oral Microbiota, Disease Severity and Mortality in Fibrotic Lung Disease.
      O'Dwyer DN, Kim JS, Ma S-F, Ranjan P, Das P, Lipinski JH, Metcalf JD, Falkowski NR, Yow E, Anstrom K, Dickson RP, Huang Y, Gilbert JA, Martinez FJ, Noth I. Am J Respir Crit Care Med, 2023 Dec 5; DOI:10.1164/rccm.202308-1357OC
      PMID: 38051927
    • Journal Article
      Robust airway microbiome signatures in acute respiratory failure and hospital-acquired pneumonia.
      Montassier E, Kitsios GD, Radder JE, Le Bastard Q, Kelly BJ, Panzer A, Lynch SV, Calfee CS, Dickson RP, Roquilly A. Nat Med, 2023 Nov; 29 (11): 2793 - 2804. DOI:10.1038/s41591-023-02617-9
      PMID: 37957375
    • Proceeding / Abstract / Poster
      Serial metabolic lung biopsies identify candidate metabolites of ARDS pathogenesis
      Stringer K, Sharma R, Gillies C, Tiba M, Mccracken B, Flott T, Zhou M, Konopka K, Sjoding M, Ward K, Dickson R. 2023 Sep 9; pa1215 DOI:10.1183/13993003.congress-2023.pa1215
    • Journal Article
      In Patients With Sepsis, Initial Lactate Clearance Is Confounded Highly by Comorbidities and Poorly Predicts Subsequent Lactate Trajectory.
      McCallister R, Nuppnau M, Sjoding MW, Dickson RP, Chanderraj R. Chest, 2023 Sep; 164 (3): 667 - 669. DOI:10.1016/j.chest.2023.04.023
      PMID: 37087051