Goodpasture advanced the scientific understanding of the pathogenesis of infectious diseases, parasitism, and a variety of rickettsial and viral infections.

There, under professors William H. Welch and George H. Whipple, he was subsequently appointed a Rockefeller Fellow in pathology; he held this position from 1912 to 1915.

Thereafter, Goodpasture joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School, as an attending pathologist at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and assistant professor of pathology in Boston.

During that time, Goodpasture took a two-year leave of absence to serve during World War I as a medical officer in the United States Navy.

[3] That condition, now known as Goodpasture syndrome, is currently recognized as an immunologically mediated disease caused by autoantibodies that bind to pulmonary-alveolar, as well as glomerular-capillary, basement membranes.

In 1924, Goodpasture was invited to return to Vanderbilt as professor and chairman of the Department of Pathology, the School of Medicine having been recently reorganized.

[3] In a major advance, he introduced the chicken embryo as an experimental host for investigation of microbial infections and for production of vaccines.