Leadership Bios

M. Juliana McElrath, MD, PhD
Principal Investigator, Director of Laboratory Program

Dr. Julie McElrath is Principal Investigator and Director of the HVTN Laboratory Program and Seattle Vaccine Trials Unit. She is a Member of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Washington; Co-Director of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute and directs the Immunology and Vaccine Development Program. Dr. McElrath also has attending responsibilities on the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Infectious Diseases consult service.

Her current research pursues a vaccine that will protect against HIV-1 infection, investigates how components of T cell immunity elicited early in HIV-1 infection contribute to control of HIV-1 disease, what the influence of antiretroviral therapy is, whether T cell immune responses are involved in resistance to HIV-1 infection in high-risk persons, how antigen-specific mucosal T cells protect against HIV-1 exposure and what elements of immunity correlate with protection against HIV-1 infection by vaccine.

Dr. McElrath has built and maintains a successful international HIV vaccine laboratory program, conducted translational immunological research in humans in a multicenter setting, contributed fundamental understanding of how HIV-1 enters the mucosa to establish infection, identified persons with very low levels of HIV DNA who otherwise lack all evidence of infection, assembled invaluable cohorts from which to elucidate mechanisms of HIV risk for infection and disease and productively mentored junior faculty, young investigators, and graduate students in their career paths. In conjunction with a highly productive research program, she has assumed a leadership role or been a major contributor in a number of integrated programs at the national and international level to advance a coordinated effort to tackle the HIV epidemic through prevention efforts: the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (PI and Director of the Laboratory Program), the Gates Foundation Innate Immunity Consortium (P.I.), the Microbicides Trials Network (Director, Immunology Core), the NIH Partners in AIDS Evaluation (Head, Laboratory Working Group) and the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise (Laboratory Working Group).

Dr. McElrath received her bachelor’s degree from Furman University, Greenville, SC; her Ph.D. and M.D. degrees from the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston; her clinical training in infectious diseases at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, New York; and her post-doctoral training in molecular immunology at the Rockefeller University in New York.

› Publications by Dr. McElrath and other information


Explore further:	Leadership Bios M. Juliana McElrath, MD, PhD Principal Investigator, Director of Laboratory Program Dr. Julie McElrath is Principal Investigator and Director of the HVTN Laboratory Program and Seattle Vaccine Trials Unit. She is a Member of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Washington; Co-Director of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute and directs the Immunology and Vaccine Development Program. Dr. McElrath also has attending responsibilities on the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Infectious Diseases consult service. Her current research pursues a vaccine that will protect against HIV-1 infection, investigates how components of T cell immunity elicited early in HIV-1 infection contribute to control of HIV-1 disease, what the influence of antiretroviral therapy is, whether T cell immune responses are involved in resistance to HIV-1 infection in high-risk persons, how antigen-specific mucosal T cells protect against HIV-1 exposure and what elements of immunity correlate with protection against HIV-1 infection by vaccine. Dr. McElrath has built and maintains a successful international HIV vaccine laboratory program, conducted translational immunological research in humans in a multicenter setting, contributed fundamental understanding of how HIV-1 enters the mucosa to establish infection, identified persons with very low levels of HIV DNA who otherwise lack all evidence of infection, assembled invaluable cohorts from which to elucidate mechanisms of HIV risk for infection and disease and productively mentored junior faculty, young investigators, and graduate students in their career paths. In conjunction with a highly productive research program, she has assumed a leadership role or been a major contributor in a number of integrated programs at the national and international level to advance a coordinated effort to tackle the HIV epidemic through prevention efforts: the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (PI and Director of the Laboratory Program), the Gates Foundation Innate Immunity Consortium (P.I.), the Microbicides Trials Network (Director, Immunology Core), the NIH Partners in AIDS Evaluation (Head, Laboratory Working Group) and the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise (Laboratory Working Group). Dr. McElrath received her bachelor’s degree from Furman University, Greenville, SC; her Ph.D. and M.D. degrees from the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston; her clinical training in infectious diseases at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, New York; and her post-doctoral training in molecular immunology at the Rockefeller University in New York. › Publications by Dr. McElrath and other information