Profile

Dr. Pavlakis received his M.D. from the University of Athens, Greece, and his Ph.D. from Syracuse University. He has been associated with the NCI since 1980 and is currently chief of the Human Retrovirus Section. Dr. Pavlakis has focused his research on the biology and pathogenesis of human retroviruses, especially HIV–1. His interests include the molecular biology of HIV–1; the pathogenic mechanisms leading to AIDS; and the development of models of human disease, new technologies to study gene function, and improved methods for gene transfer and gene therapy.

Dr. Pavlakis has made important contributions to the understanding of the molecular biology of HIV and other retroviruses and of the pathogenic mechanisms of AIDS. His laboratory discovered the first transcriptional transactivator identified in retroviruses, the Tax protein of HTLV-I. In addition, Dr. Pavlakis’s group was the first to identify the postulated Tat transactivator protein of HIV-1 in human. Dr. Pavlakis also identified the function of the second essential HIV regulatory factor, Rev. Dr. Pavlakis subsequently identified all the HIV mRNAs, the proteins produced by each of them, and their complex regulation. This work forms the basis of our understanding of the molecular organization of HIV-1 and has been useful to many laboratories worldwide. More recently Dr. Pavlakis identified a new RNA element responsible for nucleocytoplasmic transport. Dr. Pavlakis’ group has developed candidate DNA vaccines for AIDS based on optimized expression, which are presently under study. Dr. Pavlakis presently studies the effects of several cytokines and chemokines on the virus-cell interactions in the body and reservoirs of the AIDS virus in NK cells.