I am a Professor of Virology in the Department of Microbiology (http://www.md.rcm.upr.edu/micro/faculty/melendez.php), School of Medicine and direct the RCMI Translational Proteomcis Center at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus (UPR-MSC) http://rcmi.rcm.upr.edu/research/proteomics.html that provides clinical and basic researchers with proteomics instrumentation and services necessary to determine biomarkers for diseases that involve health disparities. I have a Ph.D. in Experimental Pathology & Immunology from Emory University School of Medicine in 1990, where I also completed two-years of post-doctoral training in Hematology and Pediatric Infectious Diseases in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control. I also have a M.S. degree in Microbiology from University of Georgia, Athens in 1981, and a Medical Technology degree from University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus in 1979. I have been Professor of Virology since 1992 and was the Director of the Biosafety Committee at the UPR-MSC for 6 years. I am currently a Principal Investigator of and NIH funded study to understand the mechanisms of macrophage-induced HIV Neuropathogenesis using proteomics approaches.