Also she has served a senior immunologist responsible for coordinating the NIH Center for HIV-AIDS Vaccine Immunology (CHAVI) studies within the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, UK. Her research focuses on understanding the immunology of infectious diseases and vaccine design, with a particular focus on the response of T cells to infections, particularly HIV-1. Goonetilleke and the CHAVI team has studied the T cell immune response to HIV in 60 patients with acute HIV infection and examined the evolution of the T cell immune response in the context of other immune responses and changes in the virus. Studies in lab are aimed at gaining understanding of the variable efficacy of CD8 T cells in natural infection.