Nazira El-Hage received her PhD in microbiology and immunology at the University of Kentucky. She is a tenured full professor in the Department of Immunology and Nanomedicine at Florida International University. Her research focuses on the mechanisms underlying HIV-induced pathology in the central nervous system in the context of opioid drug abuse. She has a keen interest in the autophagy pathway and in understanding how this pathway contributes to the neurological disorders associated with HIV and opioid addiction. She has over 80 publications.