Dr. Kunisaki is an Associate Professor and is internationally recognized for his work in HIV-associated lung and sleep comorbidities. He was PI of the START Pulmonary Substudy (NIH R01), an 80-site, 20-country randomized trial that tested the effects of immediate vs. deferred HIV treatment on lung function decline. He is co-chair of the Pulmonary Working Group in the MACS-WHS Combined Cohort Study, a large NIH-funded multi-center cohort of persons with and without HIV. He also leads sleep research (NIH R01) within the POPPY cohort of persons with and without HIV in the UK and Ireland. Outside of his HIV-related work, Dr. Kunisaki also leads and collaborates in team science clinical trials and observational research in COPD (e.g. BLOCK-COPD, COPDGene), sleep disorders (e.g. VA ASAP sleep and stroke study), and COVID-19 (e.g. ACTIV-3, ACTIV-4c).

Dr. Kunisaki is a highly regarded educator, having been awarded Teacher of the Year by the Pulmonary/Critical Care fellows (2018) and the Outstanding Educator award by the Minneapolis VA (2011, 2018). He has served as primary mentor for multiple residents, fellows, and junior faculty. He has leadership roles in the American Thoracic Society Clinical Problems Assembly (Program Committee and Planning Committee) and is a standing member of the VA Rehabilitation R&D Career Development Award review committee.

Current Mentees: David MacDonald (Jr. Faculty)

Selected Recent Publications:

• MacDonald DM, Helgeson ES, Adabag S, Casaburi R, Connett JE, Stringer WW, Voelker H, Dransfield MT, Kunisaki KM. Chronotropic index and acute exacerbations of COPD: A secondary analysis of BLOCK COPD. Ann Am Thorac Soc, online ahead of print 30 Mar 2021.

• Kunisaki KM, DeFrancesco D, Sabin C, Winston A, Mallon PWG, Anderson J, Boffito M, Haddow L, Post F, Vera J, Khalil W, Redline S, for the POPPY Study. Sleep disorders in HIV: A substudy of the Pharmacokinetics and Clinical Observations in People Over Fifty (POPPY) Study. Open Forum Infect Dis 2020;18(8):ofaa561.

• Dransfield MT, Voelker H, Bhatt SP, Brenner K, Casaburi R, Come C, Cooper AD, Criner GJ, Curtis JL, Han MK, Hatipoglu U, Helgeson ES, Jain V, Kalhan R, Kaminsky D, Kaner R, Kunisaki KM, Lambert A, Lammi M, Lindberg S, Make B, Martinez FJ, McEvoy C, Panos R, Reed R, Scanlon PD, Sciurba F, Smith A, Sriram P, Stringer W, Weingarten J, Wells JM, Westfall E, Lazarus SC, Connett JE, for the BLOCK COPD Study Group. Trial of beta-blockers for the prevention of acute exacerbations of COPD. N Engl J Med 2019;381(24):2304-2314.

• Kunisaki KM, Dransfield MT, Anderson JA, Brook RD, Calverley PMA, Celli BR, Crim C, Hartley BF, Martinez FJ, Newby DE, Pragman AA, Vestbo J, Yates JC, Niewoehner DE, on behalf of the SUMMIT Investigators. Exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cardiac events: A post hoc cohort analysis from the SUMMIT randomized clinical trial. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2018;198(1):51-57.

• Kunisaki KM, Niewoehner DE, Collins G, Aagaard B, Atako NB, Bakowska E, Clarke A, Corbelli GM, Ekong E, Emery S, Finley EB, Florence E, Infante RB, Kityo CM, Madero JS, Nixon DE, Tedaldi E, Vestbo J, Wood R, Connett JE, for the INSIGHT START Pulmonary Substduy Group. Pulmonary effects of immediate versus deferred antiretroviral treatment in HIV-positive patients with CD4+ counts >500 cells/mm3: A randomized, controlled trial. Lancet Respir Med 2016;4:980-989.