Richard Sutton, MD, PhD

After finishing his undergraduate studies at Brown University, Dr. Sutton enrolled in the MSTP at Stanford, where he obtained his PhD degree with Dr. John Boothroyd, working on trans-splicing in African trypanosomes. He then completed a categorical residency in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and a fellowship in infectious diseases at UCSF. After post-doctoral stints with Drs. Harold Varmus, Dan Littman, and Pat Brown in which he worked on HTLV cell binding and entry and the development of HIV-based gene therapy vectors, he joined the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine. In 2008 he was recruited to Yale to continue his work on HIV replication and lentiviral vectors. Dr. Sutton spends approximately 50% of his time at the research bench and 25% in the clinical setting, both out-patient and in-patient, mainly at the West Haven VA (VACT). He now the Research Chief of Infectious Diseases at VACT, which takes up roughly 25% of his time. Dr. Sutton was the Chief of Infectious Diseases at VACT from 2013-2024. Dr. Sutton took an administrative leave of absence in mid-April 2022, but he resumed all of his clinical, educational, and research activities before the beginning of 2023. The research focus of Dr. Sutton's laboratory is currently CCR5 transcriptional and post-transcriptional control and also novel anti-HIV therapeutics, specifically aimed at HIV Tat and Rev.