2nd International Conference on Retroviruses and Novel Drugs June 30- July 01, 2016 Cape Town, South Africa

Enzo Tramontano holds a degree from the University of Cagliari (1990), he was Visiting Research Scientist at the Dept. of Pharmacology at Yale University Medical School (CT, USA, 1990-1992 and 1996-1998). He was given two post-doctoral awards granted by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità for “Research in the HIV field: AIDS Project”, for research activities performed in national (1993-1995) and international (1996-1998) institutions. Since 1998 he has worked at the Departments of Experimental Biology (1998-2003), Biomedical Sciences and Technologies (2003-2007), Applied Sciences in Biosystems (2007-2010) and Life and Environmental Sciences (2011-2012) at the University of Cagliari being appointed as Research Associate (1998), Assistant Professor (2001), and Associate Professor (2006). He is now responsible for the Biomedical Section of the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences of the University of Cagliari. He is member of the European Society of Virology, the International Society for Antiviral Research, the Italian Society of Virology and the Italian Society of General Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnologies. Prof. Tramontano serves as ad hoc reviewer for several International Journals and the Italian Minister of Research.

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Dr. Barr obtained his PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Calgary, studying a family of antioxidant proteins called Peroxiredoxins in the tropical parasite called Leishmania. His research provided a better understanding of how intracellular pathogens such as Leishmania survive inside of macrophages, which are the cells normally designed to kill these pathogens. After his PhD, Dr. Barr traveled to Philadelphia as a Postdoctoral Fellow to work with Dr. Rick Bushman at The University of Pennsylvania. There he studied the molecular interactions between the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and host cellular genomes. His research provided a better understanding of how HIV permantently integrates into the genome of its host cells; a process that contributes to life-long infection. Near the end of his time with Dr. Bushman, he discovered a novel human protein called TRIM22 that inhibits HIV replication by trapping the virus inside of cells. He took this project to the laboratory of Dr. Smiley at the University of Alberta to utilize the expertise of Dr. Jim Smiley to better understand the mechanism of how TRIM22 traps HIV inside of cells. Near the end of his time in Dr. Smiley’s laboratory he discovered another novel human protein called HERC5 that also inhibited HIV replication. Dr. Barr took this project to Western as an independent investigator where his team unlocked the novel mechanisms by which this interesting protein blocks HIV replication. Currently, Dr. Barr is a molecular virologist at Western in the department of Microbiology and Immunology where his team continues to unlock the mysteries of TRIM22, HERC5 and HIV. It is their goal to exploit the powerful and natural activities of HERC5 and TRIM22 to help block HIV replication and allow our immune system to get the upperhand in clearing HIV infection. Dr. Barr’s team also recently discovered an exciting new way that HIV integrates into the human genome. This research hopes to uncover a neverbefore seen mechanism of how HIV establishes and maintains latency, which is one of the biggest obstacles in curing HIV/AIDS. Their work also has potential implications in the design of next-generation retroviral-based gene therapy vectors.

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The Gabonese researcher, Donatien Mavoungou, is about to discover the first vaccine against the AIDS virus. The professor in chemistry worked out IMMUNOREX TM which test results are rather promising for the moment. During his passage on 16th June 2014 in Libreville (Gabon), Pr Donatien Mavoungou and his colleagues presented to the Gabonese press, IMMUNOREX TM, the treatment that could become the vaccine against the HIV / AIDS. According to the Gabonese quoted by the site Gabonreview, the vaccine is tested at its second phase and was already tested on 200 sick people in France without any negative reaction registered. “We have at present a therapeutic vaccine against AIDS, which is till today, one of the rare in the world to have succeeded to enter into the 2nd phase with an authorization of stopping the triple agent therapy for two months“, declared Pr Mavoungou. The Gabonese researcher is supported in his works by the managing director of the international institute for developement and the support innovative scientific research, Michel Paul Correa. For the latter, “involving Gabon via Immunorex of Pr Donatien Mavoungou in the development of a vaccine against AIDS with Biosantech is an important challenge in all respects for the influence of Gabon.” Africa is the continent the most affected by the HIV / AIDS. In 2005 UNAIDS registered 1,8 million deaths caused by the virus on the continent.

HIV / AIDS, Virus, Vaccines

Eddy Arnold is Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rutgers University and a Resident Faculty Member at the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine. He has authored more the 240 scientific publications. Among his awards and honors are two NIH MERIT Awards (1998-2008, 2009-2019) and the Hyacinth Award “Honoring Advances in the Struggle Against AIDS” (2013). He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2001) and in the American Academy of Microbiology (2006).

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Ekwu B. B. Ochigbo is a Registered Pharmacist and an HIV & AIDS resource person. He holds an M. Phil. with distinction in HIV & AIDS Management from the Africa Centre for HIV & AIDS Management, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa. He is also the Director of Tibe Pharmacare, a pharmaceutical and health research consultancy close corporation. His interests are in therapeutics and treatment outcomes research. Ochigbo has participated in different clinical research including the pharmacokinetics study for Boehringer Ingelheim- 1100.1518, an open-label, multiple dose, cross-over study to evaluate the steady-state pharmacokinetic parameters of Nevirapine extended release tablets in HIV-1 infected children, leading to the successful registration of Nevirapine XR by the USA FDA in March 2011. He was also Principal Investigator for the study of the Adherence to prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) therapy among HIV infected pregnant women in Area W Clinic, Botswana. Ochigbo is a member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, the Pharmaceutical Society of Botswana, and the Pharmaceutical Society of Namibia. He is also a member of the Rotary club of Francistown.

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Vladimir Zajac has completed his Ph.D. in 1982 at the Cancer Research Institute of Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava (Slovakia), where he was from 1996 to 2010 the Head of Department of Cancer Genetics. He joined the Medical Faculty of the Comenius University as Associate Professor of Genetics in 2007. He has published 56 papers mostly in reputed journals and he was editor of the book "Bacteria, viruses and parasites in AIDS process" (InTech)

Cancer and AIDS