The field of immunometabolism has fundamentally revolutionized our understanding of the pathogenesis of infectious diseases. In a landmark study, we first report immune cells in HIV-infected volunteers utilize glucose differently from uninfected volunteers and is linked to immune dysfunctions. At the fundamental level, nutrient metabolism influences immune cell survival, differentiation and functions, and our work illuminates how HIV distorts host metabolic machineries as an immune escape mechanism.

Krystal Vail, DVM, PhD, is a veterinary pathologist with a research focus on mechanisms of disease and host-pathogen interactions. Her research to-date has centered on understanding (i) how intracellular bacterial pathogens, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Rhodococcus equi, and Listeria monocytogenes, interact with host innate immune pathways and (ii) how peripheral infections influence neural inflammation and degeneration.

Jay Rappaport, PhD is the director and chief academic officer of the Tulane National Primate Research and a tenured Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Tulane University of School of Medicine. He transferred his research program from Temple University to the primate center in 2018 when he became the director of the center, and has been remarkably successful in directing center operations, obtaining funding for the center and university in general, and maintaining a successful research program.

Dr. Xiaolei Wang is an Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine. After receiving her doctorate in 2001 from Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Dr. Wang completed postdoctoral trainings in the laboratory of Dr. Honghai Wang at Fudan University for TB study in 2003 and in the laboratory of Dr. Ronald Veazey at Tulane National Primate Research Center for the study of pathogenesis of pediatric AIDS in 2009. Dr.

Dr. Veazey is a professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Tulane University School of Medicine, and has been chair of the Division of Comparative Pathology at the Tulane National Primate Research Center since 2003. He is a recognized expert on SIV and HIV infection and pathogenesis, a specialist in mucosal immunology, and in examining the earliest events in SIV transmission, immunology, and pathogenesis.