Richard Koup Richard Koup, MD is a Senior Investigator, Chief of the Immunology Laboratory, and the Deputy Director of the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) within the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Koup has spent most of his career studying the protective role of HIV-specific cellular immunity. His specific research involves the characterization of T and B cell factors that are involved in protective immunity against HIV infection, in order to inform the development of vaccines against HIV. He has published over 240 invited and/or peer-reviewed manuscripts on this and related topics, and has mentored 35 graduate and postgraduate students during his career. He serves as an Editor for PLoS Pathogens and on the editorial boards of several other scientific journals.