Conference Speaker

Raymond F. Schinazi, Emory University School of Medicine, USA

Dr. Raymond F. Schinazi is the Frances Winship Walters Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Laboratory of Biochemical Pharmacology at Emory University. He serves as Senior Research Career Scientist at the Atlanta Department of Veterans Affairs and Director of the Scientific Working Group on Viral Eradication within the NIH-sponsored Emory University Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). He is also adjunct Professor of Chemistry at Georgia State University. Professor Schinazi received his B.Sc. (1972) and Ph.D. (1976) in Chemistry from the University of Bath, England, and completed post-doctoral training in Pharmacology at Yale University with Dr. Bill Prusoff and in Virology/Immunology at Emory University with Dr. André Nahmias. Dr. Schinazi has served Emory and the VA for 33 and 28 years, respectively. He has authored over 430 peer-reviewed papers and 7 books, and has secured more than 90 issued U.S. patents. He is best known for his innovative and pioneering work on d4T (stavudine), 3TC (lamivudine), FTC (emtriva), LdT (telbivudine), RCV (racivir), and DAPD (amdoxovir), drugs that are now approved by the FDA or are at various stages of clinical development. He has brought these compounds to clinical trial; four of them are already approved drugs, and six are used in fixed dose combinations (total 10 NDAs). More than 90% of HIV-infected individuals take at least one of the drugs he invented. It is estimated that Dr. Schinazi’s work has saved over 3 million lives worldwide. He is on the editorial board of several journals including Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, Antiviral Research, AIDS Reviews, Antiviral Chemistry and Chemotherapy, Global Antiviral Journal, Antiviral Therapy, HIV/AIDS - Research and Palliative Care and Open Access Journal of Hepatology. He is also the founder of the highly successful HIV- and HEP-DART conferences. Dr. Schinazi is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Georgia Biomedical Industry Growth Award, the Bruce Witte Annual Distinguished Award, and the 2006 Distinguished Scientist Award from the Hepatitis B Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s Top Innovators in America Award, and two Merit Awards (10-year grants) from NIH-NIAID. In 2006, he received an honorary D.Sc. from the University of Bath for his research accomplishments in the field of HIV and biotechnology. In 2008, he received the Dean’s Distinguished Faculty Lecture and Award, the most prestigious and celebratory honor for a faculty member of Emory University School of Medicine. He also received the 2010 Herman Beerman Award from the Society for Investigative Dermatology. Dr. Schinazi has served on the Presidential Commission on AIDS and currently serves on the Board of Trustees of AMFAR. Due to his many notable accomplishments, Dr. Schinazi is internationally recognized as one of the most influential persons in the life science sector.

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