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.