Raul Andino is a virologist and professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at 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 ...

. He is noted for leading a team of researchers that developed the first new oral polio vaccine in 50 years.

Early life and education

Raul Andino was born in 1957 in Argentina. He completed his

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in Biology in 1980 and his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1986, both 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 ...

. Andino emigrated to the United States in the 1980s. He then went on to work as a

postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

first at the

Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research Whitehead may refer to: * Whitehead (comedo), a blocked sweat/sebaceous duct of the skin * Whitehead (bird), a small species of passerine bird, endemic to New Zealand * Whitehead building, heritage listed residence of the principal of the Univer ...

from 1986 to 1991, then at

Rockefeller University The Rockefeller University is a Private university, private Medical research, biomedical Research university, research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and pro ...

in the lab of

David Baltimore David Baltimore (born March 7, 1938) is an American biologist, university administrator, and 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. He is a professor of biology at the California Institute of Tech ...

from 1991 to 1992. He then joined the faculty of the University of California, San Francisco as an

assistant professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...

. He was promoted to

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

in 1999, then full professor in 2003.

Research

Raul Andino's research has long focused on

poliovirus Poliovirus, the causative agent of polio (also known as poliomyelitis), is a serotype of the species '' Enterovirus C'', in the family of '' Picornaviridae''. There are three poliovirus serotypes, numbered 1, 2, and 3. Poliovirus is composed ...

. Together with Andrew Macadam, Andino redesigned the polio vaccine to enhance its genetic stability and reduce the risk of the virus reverting to a virulent form. Andino was a key member of the team that developed novel oral polio vaccines (nOPVs) for poliovirus types 1 and 3, building upon their earlier work on nOPV2. These vaccines have been engineered to be more genetically stable and less likely to regain virulence than the original Sabin strains. His research has expanded to other

enterovirus ''Enterovirus'' is a genus of positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses associated with several human and mammalian diseases. Enteroviruses are named by their transmission-route through the intestine ('enteric' meaning intestinal). Serologic ...

es and host defenses against various

RNA virus An RNA virus is a virus characterized by a ribonucleic acid (RNA) based genome. The genome can be single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) or double-stranded (Double-stranded RNA, dsRNA). Notable human diseases caused by RNA viruses include influenza, SARS, ...

es. His group has also had a long-standing interest in

RNA interference RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process in which RNA molecules are involved in sequence-specific suppression of gene expression by double-stranded RNA, through translational or transcriptional repression. Historically, RNAi was known by ...

as an antiviral defense, and in the dynamics of viral evolution during infection and transmission. Andino has warned of a “silent epidemic” of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV) in developed countries where only the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) is used. Because IPV prevents symptomatic disease but does not provide gut immunity, cVDPV can circulate undetected through wastewater. Andino's recent work has focused on developing a new, more stable version of the oral polio vaccine. By targeting a specific area on the viral genome responsible for reversion to virulence, Andino and his colleagues engineered a strain that requires multiple mutations before reverting to a virulent phenotype. Andino described this approach as "putting the virus in an evolutionary cage."

Notable publications

*Vignuzzi M, Stone JK... Andino R (2006). Quasispecies diversity determines pathogenesis through cooperative interactions in a viral population. ''Nature''. 439(7074): pgs. 344-348 *Gitlin L, Karelsky S, Andino R (2002). Short interfering RNA confers intracellular antiviral immunity in human cells. ''Nature''. 418(6896): pgs. 430-434 *Crotty S, Camerson SE, Andino R (2001). RNA virus error catastrophe: direct molecular test using ribavirin. ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America''. 98(12): pgs. 6895-6900 *Gamarnik AV, Andino R (1998). Switch from translation to RNA replication in a positive-stranded RNA virus. ''Genes and Development''. 12(15) pgs. 2293-2304 *Andino R, Rieckhof GE... Baltimore D (1993). Poliovirus RNA synthesis utilizes an RNP complex formed around the 5'-end of the viral RNA. ''EMBO Journal''. 12(9): pgs. 3587-3598

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andino, Raul 20th-century Argentine biologists 1957 births American virologists Fellows of the American Academy of Microbiology Living people Polio University of Buenos Aires alumni University of California, San Francisco faculty