Dr. Priya Pal joined the Department of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases as an Instructor in July of 2024. Dr. Pal completed undergraduate training at Florida State University (BS Chemistry, Biochemistry and Biomedical Mathematics 2008), completed her MD, PhD from Washington University in St. Louis (2017), medical residency at Tulane (2017-2020) followed by infectious diseases fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis (2020-2022). She underwent postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Liang Shan. Dr. Pal’s research interests are focused on investigating the host-pathogen interface and understanding the molecular basis of how HIV evades the immune system. Her long-term research goal is to design vaccines and targeted therapeutics that will improve the clinical outcomes of people living with HIV (PLWH).
Efforts to develop a cure for HIV have been hindered by HIV’s rapid mutational rate and ability to evade immune pressure. During the early clinical stages of HIV infection, a specific subset of HIV, X4-tropic viruses, are naturally restricted by the innate immune system, while R5-tropic viruses replicate freely. Dr. Pal’s current work centers on investigating how X4-tropic viruses are suppressed by the human immune system in the presence of R5-tropic virus, during the early clinical stages of HIV infections and to determine the molecular mechanisms that mediate the emergence of suppressed X4-tropic virus subsets during the later clinical stages of HIV infection. The goal of this work is to discover novel, translatable targets that can be used to develop therapeutics that can be used to eliminate R5-tropic virus from PLWH. Her key interests are HIV cure research, Internal Medicine, Infectious diseases and healthcare policy.