Andrea Gamarnik (

Capital Federal Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, Argentina, 5 October 1964) is an Argentine molecular

virologist Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, the ...

noted for her work on

Dengue fever Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease caused by dengue virus, prevalent in tropical and subtropical areas. Asymptomatic infections are uncommon, mild cases happen frequently; if symptoms appear, they typically begin 3 to 14 days after i ...

. She received a 2016 L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science fellowship for work on

mosquito Mosquitoes, the Culicidae, are a Family (biology), family of small Diptera, flies consisting of 3,600 species. The word ''mosquito'' (formed by ''Musca (fly), mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish and Portuguese for ''little fly''. Mos ...

-borne viruses include

. She also was granted the

Konex Award Konex Foundation Awards, or simply Konex Awards, are cultural awards from the Konex Foundation honouring Argentine cultural personalities. History and purpose Konex Awards are granted by the Konex Foundation, created in 1980 in Argentina. The p ...

Merit Diploma in 2013 and the Platinum Konex Award in 2023 for her work in those last decades. She studied at the

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires (, UBA) is a public university, public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the second-oldest university in the country, and the largest university of the country by enrollment. Established in 1821 ...

and the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It is part of the University of California system and is dedic ...

. She has done work for the

Leloir Institute The Leloir Institute is a non-profit research center in Buenos Aires specializing in biochemistry, cellular biology, molecular biology, and related activities. Overview The research center was inaugurated in 1947 by way of an initiative of Univ ...

. She is the first female

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

to become a member of the

American Academy of Microbiology American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

Biography

Early years

Gamarnik was raised in the city of

Lanús Lanús () is the capital of Lanús Partido, Buenos Aires Province in Argentina. It lies just south of the capital city Buenos Aires, in the Greater Buenos Aires conurbation, metropolitan area. The List of cities in Argentina, city has a populati ...

. In 1988, she graduated in

Biochemistry Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...

with golden medal in the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Buenos Aires, due to her family's effort and a scholarship from the Lanus College of Pharmacists. Gamarnik finished her doctorate studies in the same university in 1993, then, between 1994 and 1999, did a post-doctorate in virology in the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, where she studied the molecular mechanisms of poliovirus.

Professional career

Gamarnik worked at the biotech company ViroLogic on the development of phenotypic assays for HIV, and hepatitis B and C viruses between 2000 and 2001. She returned to Argentina at the end of 2001 to join the Leloir Institute, where she created the first Molecular Virology laboratory, and from which she has already published more than 30 research papers on the dengue virus. From 2005 to 2011, Gamarnik was an International Research Scholar at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She is currently head of the Molecular Virology Laboratory at the Leloir Institute Foundation, independent researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), associate editor of the journal ''

PLoS Pathogens ''PLOS Pathogens'' is a peer-reviewed open-access medical journal. All content in ''PLOS Pathogens'' is published under the Creative Commons "by-attribution" license. ''PLOS Pathogens'' began operation in September 2005. It was the fifth journal o ...

,'' and member of the editorial board of the journal Virology. One of the most important research that came out of the Molecular Virology laboratory at the

, was the discovery of the mechanism by which the dengue virus multiplies between molecules. Additionally, in 2015 they determined what the dengue virus needs to pass from mosquito to human, that is, how it changes to be able to infect two types of cells. Gamarnik actively participates in policy discussions related to the promotion of science and women in science, from speeches at award ceremonies or interviews with sitting presidents in Argentina, to signing public letters with the S&T Group. Additionally, she has published research in prestigious journals in her field such as Genes and Development, Virology, RNA and Journal of Biological Chemistry. Her studies on viral attenuation mechanisms are the basis for the design of vaccines, which resulted in a technology exported to the United States. During the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Gamarnik and her team at the

developed the first antibody test for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, "COVIDAR IgG", in only 45 days. This antibody test was manufactured in Argentina.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gamarnik, Andrea Virologists 1964 births Living people Women virologists L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science laureates 21st-century Argentine women scientists University of Buenos Aires alumni University of California, San Francisco alumni 21st-century Argentine scientists