Professional Bio
Celestine N. Wanjalla, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases within the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Her long-term goal is to be a tenured physician-scientist conducting global research in academic medicine with a focus on reducing the burden of metabolic disease due to chronic viral infections, including HIV and herpes viruses.
Dr. Wanjalla holds a PhD in immunology and microbial pathogenesis with training in the basic principles of T cell and B cell immunology. As a graduate student, she established a mouse model to study a dendritic cell-based vaccine against HIV-1 using rabies virus as a vector. She demonstrated that rabies virus dendritic cell vaccines were equally immunogenic compared to the viral vector.
Dr. Wanjalla’s research career has resulted in 15 publications and one research grant. Her training and research have increased her interest in the role of T cells in the pathogenesis of metabolic disease in individuals with chronic viral infections.
Relevant Links
Publications
Education
PhD - Immunology and Microbial Pathogensis - Thomas Jefferson University, 2013
MD - Thomas Jefferson University, 2013
Internship - Internal Medicine - Vanderbilt University, 2014
Residency - Internal Medicine - Vanderbilt University, 2015
Fellowship - Infectious Diseases - Vanderbilt University, 2018
Contact
Email
Kimryn.Rathmell@Vumc.Org
Address
777 Preston Research Building
2220 Pierce Ave
Nashville, TN 37232-6307