About this talk
In early days of his career, Virologist Leor Weinberger noticed a fundamental mismatch in the creation of viral therapies. While viruses are dynamic, therapies were static. He spent the next 20 years pursuing a radical question: Can a therapy mutate and transmit just as a virus does? He chased this idea wholeheartedly, in a quest for a dynamic therapy for HIV. In doing so, he created a “hijacker therapy” which allows a vaccine hijacker cell to protect cells from HIV. This would not only stop the spread of HIV, but could change the future of viral outbreaks. Leor persevered to create a vaccine for HIV that effectively mimics the properties of a virus itself.
To learn how this discovery could stop the next viral pandemic, watch Leor’s Talk, “Can we create vaccines that mutate and spread?” now on TEDMED.com.
Note: FDA clinical trial approval indicates ppIND review.
About Leor Weinberger
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About Leor
Dr. Leor Weinberger is a distinguished virologist and professor at the Gladstone Institutes and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He is a recognized leader in the field, directing a research group to create new, effective antiviral medicines. His work is especially important for developing countries because he aims to engineer drugs that viruses cannot easily become resistant to. In a major breakthrough in 2019, Leor and his team developed the first Therapeutic Interfering Particles (TIPs) and demonstrated their efficacy against HIV in animals. This groundbreaking research offers a new way to fight viruses by preventing them from multiplying, and it has the potential to lead to entirely new types of antiviral treatments. Leor’s innovative work has earned him significant recognition. He has been honored with numerous prestigious awards, including the Pew Scholarship and a Sloan Fellowship. He is also the only person to have won three major awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH): the NIH Director’s Pioneer, Avant Garde, and New Innovator Awards. His research has been featured in top scientific journals like Science, Nature, and Cell.
