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 land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It co ...

. 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 an 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 practice.

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

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires ( es, Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA) is a public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Established in 1821, it is the premier institution of higher learning in the country and one of the most prestigi ...

. 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). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...

first at the

Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research is a non-profit research institute located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States that is dedicated to improving human health through basic biomedical research. It was founded as a fiscally indepen ...

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 (state), New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medica ...

in the lab of

David Baltimore David Baltimore (born March 7, 1938) is an American biologist, university administrator, and 1975 Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. He is President Emeritus and Distinguished 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 and Canada. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doctoral degree and gene ...

. 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''. Overview In the '' North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is ...

in 1999, then full professor in 2003.

Research

Raul Andino's research has long focused on

poliovirus A 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: types 1, 2, and 3. Poliovirus is composed of a ...

. Together with Andrew Macadam, Andino redesigned the polio vaccine so it can stop the virus from re-evolving. 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 s ...

es and host defenses against other

RNA virus An RNA virus is a virusother than a retrovirusthat has ribonucleic acid (RNA) as its genetic material. The nucleic acid is usually single-stranded RNA ( ssRNA) but it may be double-stranded (dsRNA). Notable human diseases caused by RNA viruse ...

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 o ...

as an antiviral defense, and in the dynamics of viral evolution during infection and transmission.

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 scientists 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