Charles R. Rinaldo, PhD

Dr. Rinaldo is Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. Rinaldo has a distinguished background in several areas of basic research and clinical diagnostics, as well as in research administration. He received his Ph.D. in microbiology in 1973 from the University of Utah under the advisership of Drs. James C. Overall, Jr. and Lowell Glasgow, and was a postdoctoral fellow in infectious diseases at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School in 1974-78 under the mentorship of Dr. Martin S. Hirsch. Dr. Rinaldo was recruited to the University of Pittsburgh in 1978 by Dr. Monto Ho to develop a basic research program in cell immunity to herpesviruses and to direct the Clinical Virology Laboratory in the Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He was Chairman of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology in the Graduate School of Public Health from 1997 to 2021.

In 1983, Dr. Rinaldo established a Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) clinical research site (CRS) in Pittsburgh, locally termed the Pitt Men's Study (PMS). The MACS combined with the Women’s Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) in 2019 to form the MACS/WIHS Combined Cohort Study (MWCCS). The MWCCS conducts research on the natural history of HIV infection in several thousand men and women at 13 primary Clinical Research Sites across the USA including Pittsburgh located across the United States (MWCCS website: https://statepi.jhsph.edu/mwccs/).

Biological specimens and behavioral data are collected at 6- and 12-month intervals from study participants. Study visits include detailed questions covering HIV-related symptoms and utilization of health services, demographic and psychosocial characteristics, a quality of life survey, a physical examination, a detailed form on medications used as prophylaxis and/or treatment, a neuropsychological screening and examination, blood samples to measure hematologic variables including enumeration of T cell subsets and HIV viral load, and the allocation of biologic samples to be sent to the MWCCS National Repository. These specimens are invaluable for understanding the immunopathogenesis of HIV infection and chronic comorbidities development of disease in people with HIV (PWH). The MWCCS has published over 2000 scientific articles, many of which have had significant impact in the field of AIDS research.

Dr. Rinaldo has been a leader in the fight against the AIDS epidemic for over 40 years and has received awards from the Pittsburgh LGBT community and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for his excellence and dedication in AIDS research. He has served nationally on the NIH AIDS Research Advisory Committee and NIH AIDS-related Study Section, many NIH ad hoc advisory committees and study sections, and editorial boards of several scientific journals. He is currently a member of the MWCCS Executive Committee, co-director of an AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) Immunology Specialty Laboratory assessing potential cures for HIV infection, and co-director of Systems Biology & Biostatistics Core F in the Rustbelt Center for AIDS Research (Case/UHC-Pitt CFAR).

Dr. Rinaldo has had continuous research grant funding from the NIH since 1979. He was honored with a 10-year MERIT award from the NIH for support of his HIV research in 2004. Dr. Rinaldo has mentored over 30 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, many of whom have obtained prestigious positions in academia, government and industry. Dr. Rinaldo’s research laboratory focuses on innate and adaptive immunity in the immunopathogenesis of HIV, human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8/KSHV), and SARS-CoV-2 in the MWCCS. He co-directs an Immunology Specialty Laboratory in the AIDS Clinical Trials Group focused on cell immunity and immune regulation and activation. His HIV MWCCS research centers on the dynamics of B cell-T cell interactions, unique cholesterol metabolic pathways that affect HIV trans infection of T cells, and the effects of HIV infection on the oral and gut microbiome and metabolome, with the goal of eradicating the HIV biologic reservoir in PWH.