Developmental Core

After finishing his undergraduate studies at Brown University, Dr. Sutton enrolled in the MSTP at Stanford, where he obtained his PhD degree with Dr. John Boothroyd, working on trans-splicing in African trypanosomes. He then completed a categorical residency in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and a fellowship in infectious diseases at UCSF. After post-doctoral stints with Drs. Harold Varmus, Dan Littman, and Pat Brown in which he worked on HTLV cell binding and entry and the development of HIV-based gene therapy vectors, he joined the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine. In 2008 he was recruited to Yale to continue his work on HIV replication and lentiviral vectors. Dr. Sutton spends approximately 50% of his time at the research bench and 25% in the clinical setting, both out-patient and in-patient, mainly at the West Haven VA (VACT). He now the Research Chief of Infectious Diseases at VACT, which takes up 25% of his time. Dr. Sutton was the Chief of Infectious Diseases at VACT from 2013-2024. Dr. Sutton took an administrative leave of absence in mid-April 2022, but he resumed all of his clinical, educational, and research activities before the beginning of 2023. He is permanently physically disabled.

The Paintsil laboratory focuses on increasing our understanding of the host determinants of individual differences in response to antiretroviral therapy; biomarkers and pathogenesis of increasing incidence of cancers in HIV treatment-experienced individuals.

Dr. Emma Fernández-Repollet received her B.A. in Education from the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras Campus, her M.S. and Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus, and a postdoctoral training in renal physiology at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She joined the faculty of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Puerto Rico Medical School in 1982. Her academic experience includes teaching medical, graduate and dental students, as well as maintaining an active Research Center in Minority Institutions (RCMI) program focusing on developing research infrastructure since 1986. She is a co-inventor in two patents on the area of flow cytometry.  Dr. Fernández-Repollet served as Vice President for Research and Technology at the University of Puerto Rico from 2003-2009.  She was a member of the Puerto Rico Trust for Science, Technology and Research, an autonomous entity created to provide ongoing funding for research and development projects and in-frastructure advancements in the Island. She has also served on a number of review groups and advisory committees of the National Institutes of Health, including the committee for developing the National Center for Research Resources Strategic Plans for 2004-2008 and 2009-2013 and the National Advisory Research Resources Council at NCRR-NIH. She was also the President of the National RCMI Program Directors Association from 2003-2006, Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Center for Quantitative Cytometry from 1990-2004, and member the Board of Directors of the Alliance for the Economic Development of Puerto Rico. Dr. Fernández-Repollet served as Vice President of INDUNIV, an industry-university research consortium from 2003-2009 and as President of the Puerto Rico Health Care Council from 2011-2012 . In 2007, Dr. Fernández-Repollet was recognized as Distinguished Ex-Alumni Graduate by the School of Bio-medical Sciences at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus. She received the 2008 Fred Greenwood Award in recognition of her contributions in the area of research administration and health disparities.  Recently, she was recognized as a Distinguished Puerto Rican Women in STEM. Dr. Fernández-Repollet is currently Principal Investigator and Executive Director of the Center for Collaborative Research in Health Disparities at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus, Chair of the Steering Committee of the RCMI Translational Research Network (RTRN), and member of the RCMI Advisory Committees of Meharry Medical College (chair), University of Hawaii at Manoa, Florida International University and University of California Riverside School of Medicine. She also presides  the Steering Committee of the RCMI Translational Research Network (RTRN), a national network of RCMI institutions.