Charles R. Rinaldo, PhD

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.