Biography

I completed my undergraduate and medical training at Brown University. My interest in translational medical science began with my chief residency year under Dr. Charles Carpenter. I applied to and was accepted by the Clinical Scholars Program at Rockefeller University. This program joined junior investigators with strong clinical skills to established investigators with the goal of complete immersion in the laboratory. I was accepted by the laboratory of David D. Ho, MD AND Martin Markowitz, M.D. and quickly started clinical trials of antiretroviral drugs in cohorts of patients with the goal of better understanding HIV replication dynamics and sanctuaries in vivo. I saw my patients in the morning, personally drew their blood and spent the rest of the day analyzing HIV-1 burden in their peripheral blood mononuclear cells in the laboratory. The data I accumulated featured prominently in the career development grants that I obtained during my postdoctoral and junior faculty years including NIH K23, a Clinical Scientist Development Grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and a Daland Felowship from the American Philosophical Society. The tremendous mentoring I received from Dr. Ho served as an ideal platform on which to build my own mentoring skills.

After completion of my post-doctoral training, I was recruited back to Brown to start my Laboratory of Retrovirology. My major scientific interests have revolved around host factors that impact disease progression and my current R01 tries to better understand the effect of reproductive hormones on the host proteome/transcriptome vis a vis viral transmission dynamics.

I have had the privilege of directly supervising junior scientists who now have their own junior faculty appointments at Brown and outside institutions. I have also served as mentor for undergraduates, graduates and medical students and serve as a trainer on the Pathobiology Graduate Program.

I have been continuously funded by NIH since 2000 and have served as principal investigator on two RO1s and an R21. I have also served as overall principal investigator of a U19 that focused on antiviral RNA interference; this served as a valuable experience in terms of gaining the administrative and leadership skills required to lead a multi-component federal grant. I have also led sub-projects in a variety of NIH “U” and “P” grants and have directed Cores that provide virologic (5PO1AA019072; 5P30AI042853) and molecular biology (5P20GM103468) services to users at Brown University and RIH. A recently funded NIH K24 award ensures my focus on mentoring junior investigators in the broad area of HIV-1 pathogenesis and transmission.