Of Note

Frank Chisari Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

Frank Chisari, professor at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), has received the 2015 William H. Prusoff HEP DART Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the field of viral hepatitis research.

According to the award announcement, “The HEP DART Organizing Committee recognizes that every scientific and medical advance relies on the strong foundations of discoveries by those who have come before us. Instituted in 2005, the William H. Prusoff HEP DART Lifetime Achievement Award is given at each HEP DART conference to a researcher who has made integral contributions over their career toward the advancement of care of persons infected with hepatitis viruses.”

The award’s namesake, William H. Prusoff, was an early innovator in antiviral drugs, credited with developing in the 1950s the first antiviral agent approved by the FDA and co-developing stavudine, one of the earliest AIDS drugs, in the mid-1980s.

The Chisari lab studies the immunological basis for viral clearance and disease pathogenesis during persistent viral infections, especially hepatitis B and C virus; the ability of T cell-derived cytokines to inhibit viral replication without killing infected cells; the signaling pathways and effector molecules that mediate these antiviral effects; and the viral evasion strategies that subvert them.

Chisari, who will assume the title of professor emeritus upon his retirement April 1, is a member of the Association of American Physicians, American Academy of Microbiology, National Academy of Sciences, and Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. A summary of his research accomplishments is available at https://www.informedhorizons.com/hepdart2015/pdf/ChisariBio.pdf.

Chisari will deliver an award lecture at the HEP DART 2015 Frontiers in Drug Development for Viral Hepatitis conference in December.

Send comments to: mikaono[at]scripps.edu

Professor Frank Chisari has won the William H. Prusoff HEP DART Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the field of viral hepatitis research. (Photo by Kevin Fung.)

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Of Note

Frank Chisari Receives Lifetime Achievement Award