Dr. Freiberg, MD, MSc is a Professor of Medicine, Dorothy and Laurence Grossman Chair in Cardiology, and Director of the Center for Clinical Cardiovascular outcomes Research and Trials Evaluation (V-CREATE) at Vanderbilt University. His work focuses on the epidemiology of HIV infection and cardiovascular disease; possible mechanisms underlying this association; and conducting clinical trials designed to lower cardiovascular disease risk in HIV infected people. He completed his MD at the Oregon Health and Sciences University, internal medicine residency training at the University of Chicago, and fellowship training at Boston University and the Framingham Heart Study. He is currently the director of the cardiovascular core of the Veterans Aging Cohort Study, a longitudinal observational study of HIV infected and uninfected veterans in care and a principal investigator of the Uganda Russia Boston Network for Alcohol Research Collaboration on HIV/AIDS. He also serves as member of the NHLBI HIV collaborative and the American Heart Association advisory council for HIV and heart disease. His epidemiologic work demonstrated that HIV infection is associated with an increased risk of acute myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, heart failure, and peripheral artery disease and that HIV infected people with immunodeficiency (low CD4 cell counts) have the highest risk of future cardiovascular disease events. His present work is now focusing on the role of adaptive immunity (e.g., specific T cell subsets like TH1CD4+ T cells) and the risk of future cardiovascular disease events; how HIV infection and substance use alters protein networks and the gastrointestinal microbiome to influence cardiovascular risk; and two clinical trials designed to reduce CVD risk factors and inflammation in HIV infected people.