SEMINAR: "Apoptosis and eIF5A in a novel anti-HIV drug therapy" AND "HIV/AIDS Vaccine Challenges�

Michael B. Mathews is a Professor and Chair of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at Rutgers–New Jersey Medical School. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge and was a post-doctoral fellow with Dr. Fred Sanger (MRC LMB, Cambridge). He joined UCSF as a research associate of Dr. Gordon Tomkins and went on to become a senior scientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York. His research centres on protein synthesis and gene expression, with viruses as tools and a focus of study. In recent years he has concentrated on HIV transcription, notably its regulation by the viral protein Tat and the cellular elongation factor P-TEFb. Recent work on the translation initiation factor eIF5A has led to a new approach to eradicating infected cells by drug-induced apoptosis.

Dr Stuart Shapiro is currently a Medical/Program Officer and the Team Leader for Vaccine Discovery in the Preclinical Research & Development Branch of the Vaccine Research Program, Division of AIDS (DAIDS), NIAID. His primary assignment is scientific/clinical research/program involvement and Government oversight in the conduct and operation of the Centers for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology & Immunogen Discovery (CHAVI-ID), two large NIH-funded extramural centres for basic research in HIV/AIDS vaccine discovery.