Nur F. Onen, MBChB, MRCP

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Dr. Onen joined the Infectious Diseases faculty in 2009. She graduated with commendation from Glasgow University in 1999. After her junior house officer year she gained experience in Emergency Medicine, Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology and Rehabilitation Medicine in Australia before completing her general medical training in Crosshouse Hospital, Kilmarnock and the Brownlee Centre for Infectious and Communicable Diseases in Glasgow. She completed her Membership of the Royal College of Physicians in 2004. She came to St. Louis in 2006 for fellowship in Infectious Diseases. The major focus of Dr. Onen's research is frailty among HIV-infected persons.

Research Interests

My main area of interest within clinical HIV research is the premature emergence of frailty in HIV-infected persons. This clinical syndrome is associated with a number of adverse medical and socioeconomic outcomes and is commonly seen in HIV seronegative persons in their 7th or 8th decade of life. We have demonstrated frailty in HIV-infected persons in our clinic in their 5th decade of life, on average, and this is of concern as the population continues to age in the era of combination antiretroviral therapy and HIV-related frailty is associated with unemployment, depression, greater comorbidity and past opportunistic illnesses. Using longitudinal frailty assessment data obtained from our HIV-infected outpatient population, I hope to further characterize HIV-related frailty and a sub-clinical entity, pre-frailty and determine factors associated with emergence of these states. Conversely I am also interested in developing therapeutic strategies to prevent or reverse frailty in this population.

Biographical Sketch

Link to PubMed for selected publications

Office Location:
Washington University School of Medicine
Northwest Tower
Suite 1500A
4990 Children's Place
St. Louis, MO 63110

Telephone: (314) 454-8225
Fax: (314) 454-5392
Email: nonen@dom.wustl.edu