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Dr. Norman Letvin

Dr. Norman Letvin, an expert on HIV research in primates, is a key scientific collaborator to the VRC as Director of the Non-Human Primate Research Program. As program director, he oversees the use of primate models in the evaluation of preclinical AIDS vaccine candidates developed by VRC investigators and directs the development of new vaccine strategies.

Dr. Letvin received his B.A. degree summa cum laude from Harvard University and earned his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He completed his internship and residencies in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School before beginning a full-time academic career at Harvard. He began his career at Harvard's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and later became chairman of the division of immunology at its New England Regional Primate Research Center. He is currently chief of the division of viral pathogenesis at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a position he still holds while also devoting his time to the VRC.

Dr. Letvin has been involved with NIH for many years. Throughout his scientific career, he has received NIH funding for many of his research studies in immunology, HIV/AIDS pathogenesis, AIDS vaccine development and the assessment of vaccines in primate models. He has also been involved with many NIH HIV/AIDS-related research committees. He currently chairs the NIAID AIDS Vaccine Design and Evaluation Group and the NCI Primate Advisory Committee, and serves on the AIDS Vaccine Research ("Baltimore") Committee and the HIV Vaccine Development Resource Group. In addition to his leadership on NIH committees, Dr. Letvin also serves on the scientific advisory boards for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, the Center for AIDS Research at Duke University Medical Center, and the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center. He also serves on the editorial boards for Science, Journal of Virology and AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses