Leading HIV Scientist Named GRA Eminent Scholar

Guido Silvestri Named Chief of Yerkes Division of Microbiology and Immunology and Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine for Emory School of Medicine

One of the nation’s leading investigators in the field of HIV/AIDS will join Emory University’s Yerkes National Primate Research Center and School of Medicine as a Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) Eminent Scholar. Guido Silvestri, M.D., 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 University to 11.

 “Dr. Silvestri will deepen and broaden the already significant HIV/AIDS research and development capacity in Georgia,” said 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.