Christel Uittenbogaart

Christel Uittenbogaart is a Professor in Pediatrics, Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine. She directs the Immuno/BioSpot Core and is affiliated with multiple research programs including the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her research focuses on human T cell development, HIV pathogenesis in the thymus, cytokine signaling, and immunodeficiency mechanisms. Key areas include thymic HIV infection dynamics, dendritic cell biology, and regulatory T cell function.

She pioneered SCID-hu mouse models for studying human immune system development and has extensively investigated HIV's impact on thymocyte subsets. Her work combines in vitro systems (thymocyte suspension cultures, organ cultures) with in vivo models to study viral tropism, cytokine effects, and immune reconstitution.

Recent research highlights the role of BST2/Tetherin in Treg cells and mechanisms of plasmacytoid dendritic cell dysfunction. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles on HIV immunopathogenesis, thymic biology, and T-cell leukemia models.