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Dr. Polonis has spent most of her 28 years of research experience associated with the Military HIV Research Program and focusing on HIV vaccine development. She worked with oncogenic retroviruses for her doctoral thesis and received her Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from The Roswell Park Division, State University of New York at Buffalo, NY.

Starting her career as an army officer and a post-doctoral fellow in the Division of Retrovirology, WRAIR, CPT Polonis characterized newly induced antibody responses in HIV-positive patients immunized with HIV-1 Env in the first HIV vaccine therapy trial. She then set up HIV neutralization laboratories at MHRP-WRAIR, and at the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS) in Bangkok, Thailand. While working at AFRIMS for 3 years, she trained scientists and students and worked on evaluation of humoral responses in several clinical trials, including two phase I/II prime-boost trials, in preparation for the RV144 phase III trial in Thailand.

Dr. Polonis has coordinated regional labs in Thailand and East Africa for the Duke University Comprehensive Antibody Vaccine Immune Monitoring Consortium (CA-VIMC) funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and is a standing member of the HIV Vaccines Study Section for the Center for Scientific Review at the NIH.