International AIDS expert Essex set for Discovery Lecture
Max Essex, DVM, Ph.D., chair of the Harvard School of Public Health AIDS Initiative, will deliver the next Discovery Lecture on Thursday, Nov. 4.
Max Essex, DVM, Ph.D.
His lecture, entitled “HIV-1C of Southern Africa: Treatment for Prevention,” will begin at 4 p.m. in 208 Light Hall.
Essex is the Mary Woodard Lasker Professor of Health Sciences at Harvard and chair of the Botswana-Harvard AIDS Institute.
In 1982, he hypothesized, with Robert Gallo, M.D., and Luc Montagnier, M.D., Ph.D., that a retrovirus was the cause of AIDS. For this and later confirmatory work, they shared the 1986 Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award.
In addition to his Harvard laboratory, Essex and his colleagues maintain a laboratory in Botswana to support field trials of vaccine candidates, drug regimens and a chemoprophylaxis to block mother/infant transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus.
His most recent book, “Saturday is for Funerals,” co-authored with judge and human rights activist Unity Dow, describes some of the progress that is being made to control AIDS in Botswana.
A reception will follow Essex's lecture, which is sponsored by the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health.
For a complete schedule of the Discovery Lecture series and archived video of previous lectures, go to www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/discoveryseries.