Rachel Van Duyne

Rachel Van Duyne, PhD, is a research assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology & Physiology at Drexel University College of Medicine. She comes to Drexel from University of the Sciences, where she was a research assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences.

Dr. Van Duyne’s research focus in the Klase Lab is to understand the molecular mechanisms of HIV-1 replication by investigating cellular and viral interactions. Despite the effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy (ART), HIV-1 infection establishes persistent, long-lived reservoirs of infected cells in an individual. Attempts to understand the molecular and clinical mechanisms of HIV-1 latency are necessary to develop strategies to reverse latency and eliminate viral reservoirs. However, confounding factors such as substance abuse disorders may serve to complicate methods of HIV-1 eradication. Of particular interest is to determine the effects of exposure of HIV-1 infected cells, both in the periphery and in the CNS, to drugs of abuse.