Keynote: Celestine Wanjalla, MD PhD
Spatial transcriptomic profiling of heart disease in PLWH (Tentative)
Celestine Wanjalla, MD PhD
Assistant Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Dr. Celestine Wanjalla, MD PhD, is an Assistant professor and physician-scientist in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Clinically, she cares for people living with HIV at the Comprehensive Care Clinic. The goal of her research is to understand the role of virus-specific immune cells and molecular mechanisms that promote atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease progression in people living with HIV. She earned her undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences with a distinction in research from Cornell University, worked as a research assistant at Columbia University in the Division of Pharmacology, completed her MD and PhD in Immunology and Microbial pathogenesis at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Internal Medicine, and Infectious Diseases training at Vanderbilt University Medical Center as a Harrison Scholar. Her long-term goal is to define innate and adaptive immune markers that can improve the diagnosis, identify novel therapeutic targets and improve clinical outcomes. She is a recipient of a K23 from NHLBI, the Career Awards for Medical Scientists (CAMS) from Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Doris Duke Clinical Scientist Development Award, and a Gilead HIV Scholar.