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Tshaka Cunningham | |
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| Alma mater | Princeton University Rockefeller University |
Tshaka Cunningham is the Chief Scientific Officer of Polaris Genomics, a company focused on diagnosis and treatment for individuals with behavioral health conditions, and Executive Director of the Faith Based Genetics Research Institute. [1] [2]
Growing up in Washington D.C., Cunningham was introduced to science by his grandmother, Alfreda DeGraff Simmons, who was a scientist at the National Cancer Institute and the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, M.D. [3] [4]
In 1991, Cunningham was named a top 10 award recipient from Project Excellence founded by Carl T. Rowan. [5] He graduated with a BA in molecular biology from Princeton University. [6] He then pursued a doctoral degree in molecular biology from The Rockefeller University and received a Merck Fellowship to pursue research in HIV biology. [7] His doctoral thesis was "Exploring the Early Events in the HIV-1 Life Cycle: From Post-Entry Restriction to Nuclear Import". [8] He graduated in 2005 and had postdoctoral training in immunology and tumor immunotherapy at the Pasteur Institute and the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, M.D. [9]
Cunningham started his career as a research scientist at Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Inc., where he worked on development of assays to identify drugs for cardiovascular diseases. [10] He later served as a Scientific Program Manager in the Aging and Neurodegenerative Diseases Rehabilitation Research Program at the United States Department of Veterans Affairs's Veterans Health Administration’s Office of Research & Development (VHA ORD). He also was an advisor to the VHA ORD Genomic Medicine Implementation Program and convened the Million Veteran Program-Diversity Working Group. He created the VA’s Historically Black College and University Research Scientist Training Program (VA HBCU-RSTP), the major diversity outreach initiative sponsored by VHA ORD. [9] Prior to his current role as the Chief Scientific Officer of TruGenomix, he was the Associate Director of Scientific Collaboration for DIA Global.
Cunningham is a founding member and Executive Director of the Faith Based Genomic Research Institute. The institute works to build trust between the medical community and communities of color to highlight the value of genomic research, gene editing and gene therapy. [11] He also served as a deacon at the historic Alfred Street Baptist Church. [12]
In 2011, Cunningham was honored by the Northern Virginia Urban League for his accomplishments in science and his role in the community. [13]
The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of Lentivirus that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive. Without treatment, the average survival time after infection with HIV is estimated to be 9 to 11 years, depending on the HIV subtype.
A retrovirus is a type of virus that inserts a DNA copy of its RNA genome into the DNA of a host cell that it invades, thus changing the genome of that cell. After invading a host cell's cytoplasm, the virus uses its own reverse transcriptase enzyme to produce DNA from its RNA genome, the reverse of the usual pattern, thus retro (backward). The new DNA is then incorporated into the host cell genome by an integrase enzyme, at which point the retroviral DNA is referred to as a provirus. The host cell then treats the viral DNA as part of its own genome, transcribing and translating the viral genes along with the cell's own genes, producing the proteins required to assemble new copies of the virus. Many retroviruses cause serious diseases in humans, other mammals, and birds.
Reverse-transcriptase inhibitors (RTIs) are a class of antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV infection or AIDS, and in some cases hepatitis B. RTIs inhibit activity of reverse transcriptase, a viral DNA polymerase that is required for replication of HIV and other retroviruses.
Human genetic enhancement or human genetic engineering refers to human enhancement by means of a genetic modification. This could be done in order to cure diseases, prevent the possibility of getting a particular disease, to improve athlete performance in sporting events, or to change physical appearance, metabolism, and even improve physical capabilities and mental faculties such as memory and intelligence. These genetic enhancements may or may not be done in such a way that the change is heritable.
The genome and proteins of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) have been the subject of extensive research since the discovery of the virus in 1983. "In the search for the causative agent, it was initially believed that the virus was a form of the Human T-cell leukemia virus (HTLV), which was known at the time to affect the human immune system and cause certain leukemias. However, researchers at the Pasteur Institute in Paris isolated a previously unknown and genetically distinct retrovirus in patients with AIDS which was later named HIV." Each virion comprises a viral envelope and associated matrix enclosing a capsid, which itself encloses two copies of the single-stranded RNA genome and several enzymes. The discovery of the virus itself occurred two years following the report of the first major cases of AIDS-associated illnesses.
Indinavir is a protease inhibitor used as a component of highly active antiretroviral therapy to treat HIV/AIDS. It is soluble white powder administered orally in combination with other antiviral drugs. The drug prevents protease from functioning normally. Consequently, HIV viruses cannot reproduce, causing a decrease in the viral load. Commercially sold indinavir is indinavir anhydrous, which is indinavir with an additional amine in the hydroxyethylene backbone. This enhances its solubility and oral bioavailability, making it easier for users to intake. It was synthetically produced for the purpose of inhibiting the protease in the HIV virus.
The Leibniz Institute of Virology was founded in 1948 by Heinrich Pette, a German neurologist. It began as a research facility to create a polio vaccine. It is now a private foundation and involved with basic research in virology and the immune responses of organisms. The institute is a non-profit public beneficiary organisation and an independent member of the Leibniz Association, located in Hamburg.
Douglas D. Richman is an American infectious diseases physician and medical virologist. Richman's work has focused on the HIV/AIDS pandemic, since its appearance in the early 1980s. His major contributions have been in the areas of treatment, drug resistance, and pathogenicity.
Stuart C. Ray is an American physician. He is Vice Chair of Medicine for Data Integrity and Analytics, Associate Director of the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Training Program at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and a Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases. Ray also holds appointments in Viral Oncology and the Division of Health Sciences Informatics. He is affiliated with the Institute for Computational Medicine at Johns Hopkins and is licensed to practice medicine in Maryland.
William A. Haseltine is an American scientist, businessman, author, and philanthropist. He is known for his groundbreaking work on HIV/AIDS and the human genome.
HIV/AIDS research includes all medical research that attempts to prevent, treat, or cure HIV/AIDS, as well as fundamental research about the nature of HIV as an infectious agent and AIDS as the disease caused by HIV.
Leor S. Weinberger is an American virologist and quantitative biologist. He is credited with discovering the HIV virus latency circuit, which provided the first experimental evidence that stochastic fluctuations ('noise') in gene expression are used for cell fate decisions. He has also pioneered the concept of therapeutic interfering particles, or “TIPs”, which are resistance-proof antivirals. His TED talk on this novel antiviral approach 20 years in the making has been called a "highlight" of TED and received a standing ovation from the live audience.
Éric A. Cohen is a Canadian molecular virologist whose research is focused on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-host interactions that govern viral replication and persistence.
Julianna Lisziewicz is a Hungarian immunologist. Lisziewicz headed many research teams that have discovered and produced immunotheraputic drugs to treat diseases like cancer and chronic infections like HIV/AIDS. Some of these drugs have been successfully used in clinical trials.
Akhil Chandra Banerjea is an Indian virologist and is currently the Director at Institute of Advanced Virology, Kerala. He was earlier an emeritus Scientist at the National Institute of Immunology, India. Known for his studies on viral pathogenesis and gene therapy, Banerjea is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India and the Indian National Science Academy. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences in 2001.
Raymond F. Schinazi is an Egyptian organic medicinal chemist. He is the Frances Winship Walters Professor of Pediatrics at Emory University. He has expertise in antiviral agents, pharmacology, and biotechnology. His research focuses on developing treatments for infections caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), herpes, dengue fever, zika, chikungunya, and other emerging viruses. These treatment options include antiviral agents as well as synthetic, biochemical, pharmacological and molecular genetic approaches, including molecular modeling and gene therapy.
Pierre Charneau is a French virologist, inventor, and head of the Molecular Virology and Vaccinology Unit (VMV) at the Pasteur Institute and an acknowledged specialist in HIV, lentiviral gene transfer vectors, and their medical applications. His discovery of the central DNA-flap structure in the HIV genome, and its role in viral entry into the nucleus of the infected cell, grounded the optimization of lentiviral vectors and allowed for more than 20 years of development in gene therapy and vaccines based on this gene delivery technology. Charneau has published more than 100 research articles and holds 25 patents in the field of HIV and lentiviral vectors.
Didier Trono is a Swiss virologist and a professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He is known for his research on virus-host interactions and the development of lentiviral vectors for gene therapy.
Paula Cannon is a British geneticist and virologist, Distinguished Professor of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology at the University of Southern California. She is a specialist in gene therapy, hematopoietic stem cells, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) with particular interest in gene editing and humanized mice.
Richard B. Gaynor is an American physician specializing in hematology-oncology, educator, drug developer, and business executive. He served as an Associate Professor of Medicine at UCLA School of Medicine for nearly a decade, and subsequently as an endowed Professor of Medicine and Microbiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry in 2002. His research on NF-κB, IκB kinase, and other mechanisms regulating viral and cellular gene expression has been covered in leading subject reviews. He has been a top executive at several pharmaceutical companies, with respect to the development and clinical testing of novel anticancer drugs and cell therapies. For over a decade and a half, he worked at Eli Lilly and Company, where he became the Senior Vice President of Oncology Clinical Development and Medical Affairs in 2013. Gaynor was President of R&D at Neon Therapeutics from 2016 to 2020, when he became the President of BioNTech US, both pharmaceutical companies headquartered in Cambridge, MA. His honors include being elected a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the Association of American Physicians.
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