Prof. Adela Cota-Gomez

The implementation of modern Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART) has rendered infection with HIV a chronic condition, but while HAART has proven successful in controlling viral load and preventing the progression to immunodeficiency, chronic infection with HIV confers an increased risk of non-infectious pulmonary complications including pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). The prevalence of PAH in HIV patients (HIV-PAH) is as much as 1000 times greater than in individuals without HIV, suggesting that there is something about the chronic state of HIV infection that contributes to disease. The viral and host factors involved in this pathogenesis remain enigmatic and thus my research interests are focused on uncovering molecular mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of HIV-PAH.