Dr. Apetrei studied medicine at the University of Iași, Romania. He then practiced infectious diseases medicine, before pursuing a Ph.D. in virology. Dr. Apetrei’s research focuses on simian immunodeficiency virus diversity and pathogenesis in natural hosts and upon cross-species transmission. Dr. Apetrei pioneered SIV pathogenesis in the wild and was actively involved during the last decade in modeling different aspects of HIV pathogenesis in nonhuman primate hosts. The current focus of his research is on the development of new reference strains of SIV for use in vaccine studies, optimization of a nonhuman primate model of functional cure to test strategies of virus reactivation from the reservoirs, and development of an animal model for exposed uninfected/exposed seronegative (EU/ESN) individuals to understand the correlates of resistance to HIV and develop new strategies aimed at preventing the infection. Dr. Apetrei is also involved in collaborative studies testing strategies to control chronic immune activation and prevent comorbidities in HIV-infected patients. Dr. Apetrei’s overriding philosophy is that every aspect of HIV research can and should be modeled in appropriate animal models in order to understand the basic mechanisms that underlie disease processes and implement therapeutic approaches to control the deleterious consequences of HIV infection.