Dr. Rinaldo is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. In 1983, he established a clinical research site (CRS) in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) in Pittsburgh, termed the Pitt Men's Study, which investigates the natural history of HIV-1/AIDS in men who have sex with men. This Pittsburgh CRS is now part of 13 CRS in the MACS-WIHS Combined Cohort Study (MWCCS) studying men and women living with HIV-1 compared to men and women who are not infected with HIV-1. The MWCCS focuses on the effects of chronic, persistent HIV-1 infection on comorbidities, aging and many other biologic and psychosocial parameters. Dr. Rinaldo is also Director of an AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) Immunology Specialty Laboratory which provides an extensive array of immunologic assays and scientific expertise for ACTG clinical trials seeking to better treat and ultimately cure HIV-1 infection. He is also Principal Investigator of an NIH R01 grant on immune responses to COVID-19 vaccines in people with HIV and Director of the Systems Biology & Biostatistics Core F of the Rustbelt Center for AIDS Research. These projects provide resources and biologic specimens for a broad variety of important research projects focused on the relation of the HIV-1 persistent reservoir during antiretroviral therapy to the reactivity of T cells and professional antigen-presenting cells to HIV-1, human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8, aka KSHV, the cause of Kaposi's sarcoma) and SARS-CoV-2 (the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic). Dr. Rinaldo has mentored many graduate students and postdoctoral fellows with continuous research grant funding from the NIH since 1979.

Dr. Bernard (Beej) Macatangay is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Immunology in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He is a laboratory principal investigator in the Center for AIDS Elimination in the Division of Infectious Diseases. He serves as Co-Director of the University of Pittsburgh Immunology Specialty Laboratory of the ACTG and Clinical Lab Director of the Pitt Clinical Research Site (Pitt CRS). He is also Co-Chair of the Viral Immune Pathogenesis Working Group of the MACS-WIHS Combined Cohort Study. His laboratory studies the role of different immune regulatory pathways in HIV chronic inflammation and HIV persistence. In addition, the laboratory evaluates various strategies to target inflammation in HIV and assesses immunotherapeutic strategies to achieve HIV remission off antiretroviral therapy. The Macatangay Laboratory also serves as the main specimen processing laboratory for the Pitt CRS and for other Infectious Diseases clinical research studies. Dr. Macatangay is highly involved in training the next generation of physician-scientists. He is the Director of Student and Resident ID Research, the Associate Program Director for the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program, and a faculty mentor for the Infectious Diseases Area of Concentration in the Pitt School of Medicine.