Virology, Emerging Diseases & Vaccines

Ting-Chao Chou, born in Taiwan, received Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Yale University and Post-Doctoral Fellowship from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He joined Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and became a Member, and Professor of Pharmacology at Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in 1988. He is Honorary Professor of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and Visiting Professor at five universities. He retired from MSKCC in June 2013. Dr. Chou published 326 papers with 25,553 citations (Google Scholar) with h-index of 67. He introduced The Median-Effect Theory of the Mass-Action Law (1976) and co-developed The Combination Index Theorem, CalcuSyn and CompuSyn software. His theoretical paper introducing the CI method and software (Chou TC & Talalay P. Adv. Enzyme Regul. 22:27-55, 1984) for quantitative determination of synergism (CI<1), additive effect (CI=1) and antagonism (CI>1) has been cited 4,999 times in over 754 bio-medical journals. Dr. Chou is inventor/co-inventor of 40 US Patents. He is the Founder & President of PD Science, LLC (USA).

Mathematical and theoretical biology, Pharmacology, Cancer research

Eckard Wimmer (born 22 May 1936) is a German American virologist, organic chemist and distinguished professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at Stony Brook University. He is best known for his seminal work on the molecular biology of poliovirus and the first chemical synthesis of a viral genome capable of infection and subsequent production of live viruses.

Originally trained as an organic chemist, Wimmer developed a deep understanding and fascination for viruses as replicating (living) biological entities as well as (non-living) aggregates of organic compounds, or, “as chemicals with a life cycle”.[2][3] After working on the structure of tRNAs and the structure of a plant RNA virus (satellite tobacco necrosis virus), Wimmer chose to study poliovirus in 1968. Poliovirus is the cause of the horrific disease poliomyelitis, which can cause irreversible flaccid paralysis and even death. Neither the molecular biology of poliovirus proliferation nor the mechanism of its pathogenesis was understood in the nineteen sixties.

Nikolay Nikolaevich Nosik was born on April 7, 1932 in a family of doctors. After graduation from a high school with a golden medal in 1950, he entered the First Order of Lenin Moscow Medical Institute named after I.M. Sechenov, which he graduated from with distinction in the field of General Medicine in 1956. In the same year, he entered the postgraduate training program of the D.I. Ivanovsky Institute of Virology of the USSR Academy of medical Sciences. In 1959, after completion of the postgraduate training program, he was assigned to the position of Junior Research Fellow at the Institute of Virology, at the Laboratory of Virus Morphology (headed by Professor R.M. Shen).

In recent years, N.N. Nosik has conducted research in two main areas: study of functioning of the interferon system as a part of a cytokine network in case of viral diseases and search of new antiviral drugs among interferon inducers and immunomodulators. Study of some compounds synthesized at the Moscow State University of Fine Chemical Technologies named after M.V. Lomonosov enabled revelation of some promising compounds, one of which turned out to be active in respect of the influenza virus and on the base of which an anti-flu drug (Ingavirin) was created (Valenta LLC).

Dr. Robert Striker is a faculty member in the Division of Infectious Disease within the Department of Medicine. During his MD/PhD training at Washington University, his thesis work with Dr. Scott Hultgren focused on understanding and blocking the critical P pili attachment factors needed for most urinary tract infections. He completed his internal medicine residency in San Francisco, California at a time when combination antiretroviral therapy regimes were greatly reducing mortality of the HIV epidemic. During his clinical fellowship training at Stanford University, he also conducted postdoctoral research with Dr. Karla Kirkegaard on Hepatitis C Virus (HCV). Upon joining the faculty of UW-Madison, his initial work focused on improving antiviral therapy for HCV, and specifically the role of phosphorylation in flaviviral life cycles. His research group demonstrated that phosphorylation events contribute to mosquito-mediated spread of Dengue and other flaviviruses. More recently, he has focused on developing kinase inhibitors for viral and bacterial infections, particularly PASTA kinase inhibitors that can sensitize gram positive infections to beta lactam antibiotics as well as efforts to quantify and shrink the HIV reservoir as a means of lessening immune dysfunction that accompanies HIV infection. Dr. Striker's research has been supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, the Hartwell Foundation, the Wisconsin Partnership Program, the UW Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, and the Veteran’s Association. He is also the Course Director for a multidisciplinary course for medical students, nurse practitioner students, physician assistant students, and pharmacy students who are interested in improving care for those that are incarcerated.

Virology, Immunology

Nuclear import and export of viral and cellular macromolecules.

Nuclear import and export of viral and cellular macromolecules.

After graduating at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland in 1986 I worked for 16 years as a private veterinary surgeon in southern Finland mainly in small animal and mixed practice. Between 2002 and 2004 I completed research-based Master’s degree studies on virology at the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa on the detection of lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV) in samples of experimentally infected cattle using different diagnostic techniques. In 2004 I was employed by The Pirbright Institute as a research scientist to set up the full diagnostic capacity for capripoxviruses. Since 2006 I have been heading the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reference laboratory for lumpy skin disease (LSD), sheep pox (SPP) and goat pox (GTP) in Pirbright, UK. In 2007 I was appointed as OIE’s international expert for LSD, SPP and GTP. Since 2006 I have also been responsible of the veterinary care of experimental animals at Pirbright as a Named Veterinary Surgeon. My special interest in the research field for capripoxviruses is the epidemiology, control and eradication of the diseases as well as training and enhancement of diagnostic capacity for capripoxviruses in local and national reference laboratories in developing countries. Since late 2006 I have been investigating the role of hard tick vectors in the transmission of LSDV.

Veterinary expertise on lumpy skin disease, sheeppox and goatpox

Jonathan Leis is a leader in the field of replication of retroviruses. His laboratory has played important roles in defining the mechanisms of reverse transcription, viral DNA integration, proteolytic processing, and virus assembly. He also created the nomenclature used to describe retrovirus specific proteins. He is a Professor of Microbiology & Immunology and former Executive Associate Dean for Research for the Feinberg School of Medicine. He has published 127 peer review manuscripts including many in Nature Communications, Cell, Science, and Proceedings National Academy of Sciences. He has served on many editorial boards and state, national, and international study sections

Preventing Enveloped Virus Release from Cells by Targeting Budding Complexes

Since 2005 - a CSO at XENOTOX, Inc. Have a medical background (M.D., 1970), Ph.D. in Biochemistry (1973), D.Sc. in Molecular Toxicology (1983). Hold progressively responsible positions: Group Leader (74-79), Head of the Laboratory (1979-87), Department Chair (1987-91), all at Russian Academy of Science. In the US: a Senior Scientist at NCI, NIH (1991-95), Professor (since 2010 - visiting) at Mount Sinai School of Medicine (1995-to date). Author of 5 monographs and 250+ peer reviewed publications. By using enzyme-kinetic and inhibitory analyses, pioneered in revealing TCDD-induced CYP1B1 (FEBS Letters, 1987). Invented the recombinant and TCDD-induced microsomal and isolated monooxygenase isoforms CYP1A1 and CYP1A2, to study regulatory effects of bioflavonoids on procarcinogens metabolism in humans (BBA, 1994). Since the discovery of trans-activation effect of TCDD on HIV-1 (BBRC, 1991), have established Xenobiotical Virology, a biomedical discipline dealing with mechanisms of dioxin effects on DRE-containing genes of human viruses, transcription factors and cytokines linked to inflammation and malignancy pathways.

Viruses

C. Yong Kang has completed his PhD from McMaster University in Canada and post-doctoral training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He served as a Professor of Virology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Professor and Chairman at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine, and Dean of Science at the University of Western Ontario. He has published 137 peer reviewed research papers and 151 scientific proceedings and abstracts. He holds nine international biotechnology patents. He received numerous awards including the Ho-Am Prize in Medicine. He is a Life-time Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada Academy of Science. He serves as a reviewer for eight international journals.

His research in molecular virology includes the development of viral-specific antiviral therapeutic agents and efficacious vaccines against various human viral diseases including AIDS, hepatitis and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome.

Walter Doerfler has completed Munich Medical School (LMU), Doctor of Medicine thesis in Anatomy and Internships in Munich and Trenton, NJ, USA. He did his Postdoctoral studies in Molecular Genetics at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry in Munich and in the Department of Biochemistry, Stanford University Medical School.

Genetics and Molecular Virology