Robert Gallo, MD
The Homer & Martha Gudelsky Distinguished Professor in Medicine and Microbiology
Co-Founder & Director, Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore
Co-Founder of the Global Virus Network & Chair of the GVN’s Scientific Leadership Board
A Letter from the GVN International Scientific Advisor and Chair, Scientific Leadership Board
The concept of a Global Virus Network (GVN) began back in the 1980’s when a small group of virologists realized that virtually no working virologists had a global directive for researching the cause of AIDS during the earliest years of the epidemic. Conversely, important groups such as the World Health Organization which did have a global mandate for combatting the new disease had virtually no resident expertise in the kind of virus that was subsequently shown to be the cause of AIDS, namely, a retrovirus. Examining the history of other great epidemics of the 20th century, Influenza and Polio, reveals similar disconnects between available expertise and the urgent public need to identify causation and prevention modes.
GVN Centers, with strong working relationships among them, are poised to engage in any outbreak situation by providing the world’s only network of top basic virologists from around the globe covering all classes of human, and many animal, viral threats. GVN is also committed to training the next generation of virologists in order to meet the critical need posed by the graying of members of our own discipline, and to inform and educate policymakers and members of the public about the role of virologists in mitigating viral illness and preventing infections from taking hold in populations. This is especially important as my colleagues and I have noticed a significant decline in students entering the field of virology.
-Robert C. Gallo, MD
Scientific Leadership Board
Arsène Burny, PhD
Northern Europe Consortium at Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech
Glenda Gray, MBBCh, FCPAED
President and CEO, South African Medical Research Council
Farrokh Habibzadeh, MD
Past President, the World Association of Medical Editors, (WAME)
Editorial Consultant, The Lancet
Founder and Former Editor-in-Chief, The International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, (The IJOEM)
Managing Director, R&D Headquarters, Petroleum Industry Health Organization, Shiraz, Iran
William Hall, MD, PhD
Professor of Medical Microbiology, University College of Dublin
GVN Co-Founder
Jaykumar Menon, JD, MIA
Chair and Co-Founder, Open Source Pharma Foundation
Co-Founder, The India Nutrition Initiative
Nelson L. Michael, MD, PhD
Director, Center for Infectious Diseases Research
Stanley Plotkin
Professor Emeritus, Department of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania
Physician Emeritus, Wistar
Consultant, Sanofi Pasteur & Biotechs