Keynote Title: Consistent Induction of Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies by Designer SHIVs: The Essential Role of Non-Human Primates in Advancing HIV Vaccine Development
Presented by
Beatrice H. Hahn, MD
Professor of Medicine and Microbiology
University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
About Beatrice H. Hahn, MD
Beatrice H. Hahn is a Professor of Medicine and Microbiology in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. She received her MD degree from the Technical University of Munich, trained as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Robert C. Gallo at the National Institutes of Health, and then moved to the University of Alabama in Birmingham where she remained on the faculty in the Department of Medicine for 26 years. Dr. Hahn is recognized for her work deciphering the primate origins of human AIDS viruses and the malaria parasites Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, including studies of gene functions and disease-causing mechanisms of these pathogens. She is particularly known for developing non-invasive methods to elucidate of the prevalence, evolution and zoonotic potential of microbes that infect highly endangered primate species. More recently, Dr. Hahn has studied how type 1 interferon pressures have shaped the biology of HIV-1 both at transmission and after reactivation from latency and has generated novel germline-targeting SHIVs that rapidly and consistently induce broadly neutralizing antibodies in rhesus macaques. Dr. Hahn has authored or co-authored over 500 papers and is a member of many advisory groups and editorial boards. She is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the American Academy of Microbiology, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Science, and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.