In this episode of The Cure Chronicles Podcast, we feature Dr. Deanna Kulpa. Dr. Kulpa is an assistant professor at Emory University whose work largely focuses on defining the mechanisms that promote HIV persistence in ART-treated individuals living with HIV. Dr. Kulpa's laboratory employs novel in vitro, ex vivo and OMICS approaches to identify pathways and mechanisms that improve the understanding of HIV latency establishment and maintenance.

Dr. Kulpa earned her Ph.D. in Human Genetics in 2005 from the University of Michigan in the laboratory of Dr. John Moran studying non-LTR retrotransoposons of the human genome. Dr. Kulpa did her post-doctoral training with Dr. Kathleen Collins at the University of Michigan, focusing on HIV mechanisms of immune system evasion. Dr. Kulpa was recruited to Emory University in 2016 and has since established her research program focused on understanding the dynamics of the HIV reservoir that serve to maintain latently infected cells during anti-retroviral therapy.

Currently, Dr. Kulpa is the principal investigator or co-investigator for 5 National Institute of Health (NIH) grants awarded by the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Dr. Kulpa also serves on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Virology and the Scientific Advisory Board for Jericho Sciences, LLC.