People
April 19, 2010
Emory attracts leading HIV scientist
One of the nation's leading investigators in the field of HIV/AIDS will join Yerkes National Primate Research Center and School of Medicine as a Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) Eminent Scholar. Guido Silvestri will serve as chief of the Division of Microbiology and Immunology at Yerkes and hold a primary appointment in Emory's Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
Silvestri's appointment is effective June 1. Currently, he serves as associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, director of the Clinical Virology Laboratory and co-director of the HIV Pathogenesis Program in the University of Pennsylvania Center for AIDS Research. At the University of Pennsylvania, he developed a comprehensive and highly collaborative research program that spans nonhuman primates and humans. His National Institutes of Health funding is more than $2.5 million annually.
Silvestri will join more than 60 other GRA Eminent Scholars in Georgia and increase the number of scholars at Emory to 11.
"Dr. Silvestri will deepen and broaden the already significant HIV/AIDS research and development capacity in Georgia," says Michael Cassidy, president and CEO of GRA. "His commitment to collaboration and his leadership experience are key to making Georgia a frontrunner in unraveling the daunting puzzle of HIV/AIDS."
During the past three years, Silvestri has carried out transformative studies pinpointing abnormal levels of inflammatory response to HIV as a key factor in disease progression. He has established himself among the world's foremost investigators on viral diseases in non-human primates that mimic HIV disease in humans. His work also includes collaborative studies on HIV vaccine development with investigators in the Emory Vaccine Center and studies on the evolutionary relationships of SIV and HIV related to immune dysfunction in HIV-infected individuals.
In his new position at Emory, Silvestri will collaborate with colleagues to develop novel therapeutic approaches to HIV that modulate inflammatory immune responses, as well as vaccines for chronic disease. This research could lead to intellectual property and compounds that could bring increased economic development to Georgia.
"Guido Silvestri's recruitment is a remarkable chance to bring back to Emory and Georgia a highly regarded scientist in a key area of HIV vaccine research," says Yerkes Director Stuart Zola. "Dr. Silvestri has proven his ability to establish productive research collaborations, and we are certain he will take full advantage of the outstanding opportunities colleagues at Yerkes, the Emory Vaccine Center, the Emory Center for AIDS Research and other Georgia research universities will offer."
Born and educated in Italy, Silvestri was trained at the University of Ancona Medical School where he completed residencies in allergy, clinical immunology and internal medicine. Following postdoctoral fellowships at the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal and at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases with Anthony Fauci, Silvestri completed his postdoctoral training and residency at Emory.
In 2001, Silvestri joined Yerkes as an assistant professor of medicine (infectious diseases) and a member of the Emory School of Medicine faculty. He established a successful research program investigating why sooty mangabey monkeys, naturally infected by SIV — a simian relative of HIV — did not develop AIDS-like disease. His work on this topic revealed a new paradigm for immunodeficiency virus infection through the discovery that the lack of disease is not because of poor SIV replication, but rather reduced cell death and pathogenic effect in the face of virus replication.
During the past two years, Silvestri has authored or co-authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications, several of which are defining the state of the field. He has been, or will be, the plenary speaker within his area of research at all of the major international HIV/AIDS conferences.
He is an associate editor of the Journal of Immunology, a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Virology, BMC Infectious Diseases, The Journal of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology Reviews, and a former guest editor for Current Opinion in HIV and AIDS.
