Genoveffa Franchini
Vaccine Branch
The Center for Cancer Research
United States of America
Biography
Dr. Genoveffa Franchini is a hematologist and renowned retrovirologist who has pioneered research on oncogenes and human retroviruses (HTLVs and HIVs). She has made numerous achievements in virology and translational approaches to prevent human diseases caused by retroviruses. Her work has furthered the understanding of HIV and HTLV-1 pathogenesis, leading to the identification and characterization of new viral genes for HIV and HTLV-1 and their functions. Her accomplishments in HIV vaccine development include the pre-clinical that led to the first vaccine trial in 16,000 volunteers in Thailand, that has demonstrated significant, though limited, protection against HIV acquisition. Her basic work in immunological mechanisms of protection furthered the understanding of the efficacy of the currently available smallpox vaccine in primates. She also has pioneered strategies to down-modulate regulators of immune response in HIV-1-infected individuals, using the macaque model of SIV infection.
Research Interest
Cancer Biology, Immunology, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Virology
Publications
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Liyanage NP, Gordon SN, Doster MN, Pegu P, Vaccari M, Shukur N, Schifanella L, Pise-Masison CA, Lipinska D, Grubczak K, Moniuszko M, Franchini G. (2014) Antiretroviral therapy partly reverses the systemic and mucosal distribution of NK cell subsets that is altered by SIVmac251 infection of macaques. Virology 450-451: 359-368.
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Vargas-Inchaustegui DA, Tuero I, Mohanram V, Musich T, Pegu P, et al. (2014) Humoral immunity induced by mucosal and/or systemic SIV-specific vaccine platforms suggests novel combinatorial approaches for enhancing responses. Clin Immunol 153: 308-322.
