Dr. Poluektov earned his B.S. degree in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2007. He went on to join the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine graduate Immunology program to complete his PhD under the mentorship of Dr. Scheherazade Sadegh-Nasseri in 2014. The focus of his research included determining the molecular mechanism of the HLA-DO molecule and its role in Class II antigen presentation. The study involved an in depth work with the MHC Class II system, specifically the generation of the immunodominant epitope. Following his doctoral studies, Dr. Poluektov joined the Center for Biomarker Discovery and Translation as a postdoctoral fellow to apply his experience in MHC II processing in order to determine new immunodominant peptide and glyco-peptide epitopes. His current research interests include determining the immunodominant glyco-peptide epitopes of the gp120 HIV protein.