Dr. Cuiling Xu is a Research Instructor within the Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA, and a member of the Division of Experimental Pathology. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Fukui, Japan in 2004. Her main research interest concerns assessing the efficacy of antiretroviral treatment (ART) on mucosal immune activation and inflammation, mucosal integrity, microbial translocation, and the microbiome.
Dr. Kevin D. Raehtz is a Postdoctoral Researcher working on HIV/SIV research at the University of Pittsburgh in the lab of two leading experts in the field, Drs. Ivona Pandrea and Cristian Apetrei. Before that, he participated in an ORISE Postdoctoral Research Opportunity at the USDA from 2020 to 2023. He obtained his B.S. in Microbiology from Michigan State University in 2010 and his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Pittsburgh in 2019. He has many years of experience in performing basic research and is proficient in a variety of experimental techniques, including DNA/RNA extraction from both cell and frozen tissues, quantitative PCR, flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry, cell culture, immunofluorescence, ELISA, image analysis, and brightfield and confocal microscopy.
Prof. Ivona Pandrea is a Professor of Pathology within the Division of Experimental Pathology, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, and Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, USA. Besides this, she is a member of the Division of Experimental Pathology and the Cellular and Molecular Pathology Graduate Training Program. She obtained her M.D. and Ph.D. from the "Gr. T. Popa" School of Medicine of Iasi (Romania). Her areas of interest are SIV pathogenesis in natural hosts (i.e., African green monkeys); animal models for a cure; and animal modeling of comorbidities associated with HIV/SIV infection.
Prof. Cristian Apetrei is a Professor within the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, and Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, USA. He obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. from the "Gr. T. Popa" School of Medicine, Iasi, Romania in 1990 and 1993, respectively, where he completed residency training in 1994. Then, he served as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the ANRS "Bichat-Claude Bernard" Hospital, University Paris Diderot, Paris, France in 1998. Dr. Apetrei’s research focuses on simian immunodeficiency virus diversity and pathogenesis in natural hosts and upon cross-species transmission. He pioneered SIV pathogenesis studies in the wild (in African green monkeys and mandrills) and has been actively involved during the last decade in modeling different aspects of HIV pathogenesis in non-human primate hosts. In addition, he is a Member of the CSS11 (Agence Francaise pour la Recherche sur le SIDA), the American Society for Immunology, and the American Association of Immunology.
