Genoveffa Franchini is an Italian-American hematologist and retrovirologist. She is a senior investigator in the vaccine branch and head of the animal models and retroviral vaccines section at the

National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...

. Franchini has pioneered research on

oncogene An oncogene is a gene that has the potential to cause cancer. In tumor cells, these genes are often mutated, or expressed at high levels.

s and human

retrovirus 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 e ...

es. She researches HIV vaccine development and translational methods of disease prevention.

Early life and education

As a teenager in Italy, Franchini intended to conduct service work as a missionary

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 5 ...

. Her focus later shifted to biology and medicine as a means to help patients. She completed a doctor of medicine at

University of Modena and Reggio Emilia The University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (), located in Modena and Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, is one of the oldest universities in Europe, founded in 1175, with a population of 20,000 students. The medieval university disappeared by ...

in 1977. She was a postdoctoral fellow at her alma mater in the hematology institute from 1977 to 1979.

Career

Franchini is a hematologist and retrovirologist. She began working at the

(NC) in 1979 as a research fellow. Franchini is a senior investigator in the vaccine branch at NCI's Center for Cancer Research. Since 1997, Franchini is head of the animal models and retroviral vaccines section.

Research

Franchini has pioneered research on

oncogene An oncogene is a gene that has the potential to cause cancer. In tumor cells, these genes are often mutated, or expressed at high levels.

s and human

es (HTLVs and HIVs). She has made numerous achievements in virology and translational approaches to prevent human diseases caused by retroviruses. Her work has furthered the understanding of HIV and HTLV-1 pathogenesis, leading to the identification and characterization of new viral genes for HIV and HTLV-1 and their functions. Franchini's accomplishments in HIV vaccine development include the pre-clinical that led to the first vaccine trial in 16,000 volunteers in Thailand, that has demonstrated significant, though limited, protection against HIV acquisition. Her basic work in immunological mechanisms of protection furthered the understanding of the efficacy of the currently available smallpox vaccine in primates. She also has pioneered strategies to down-modulate regulators of immune response in HIV-1-infected individuals, using the macaque model of SIV infection.

Awards and honors

Franchini was elected to the

American Society for Clinical Investigation The American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), established in 1908, is one of the oldest and most respected medical honor societies in the United States. Organization and purpose The ASCI is an honorary society to which more than 2,800 p ...

in 1990. In 2007, she was elected to the

Association of American Physicians The Association of American Physicians (AAP) is an honorary medical society founded in 1885 by the Canadian physician Sir William Osler and six other distinguished physicians of his era for "the advancement of scientific and practical medicine ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Franchini, Genoveffa Living people Place of birth missing (living people) National Institutes of Health people 21st-century American biologists 21st-century American women scientists American medical researchers Women medical researchers American women biologists Italian medical researchers 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century American biologists 20th-century American women physicians 20th-century American physicians 21st-century American women physicians 21st-century American physicians 20th-century Italian physicians 21st-century Italian physicians 20th-century Italian scientists 21st-century Italian scientists Italian women biologists 21st-century Italian women physicians American hematologists Italian hematologists American virologists Italian virologists Women virologists HIV/AIDS researchers Italian emigrants to the United States Expatriate academics in the United States University of Modena and Reggio Emilia alumni Members of the American Society for Clinical Investigation Year of birth missing (living people) Women hematologists 20th-century Italian women