VRC
Home
Office of the Director
Key Personnel
Dr. Richard Wyatt
 Dr.
Richard Wyatt has joined the Dale and Betty Bumpers
Vaccine Research Center (VRC) as Chief of the Structural
Virology Section in the Laboratory of Virology. Dr.
Wyatt comes to the Washington area from New England,
where he was an instructor and conducted research at
the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard School
of Medicine in Boston.
Dr. Wyatt has an exceptional blend of
academic knowledge and research experience in the fields
of immunology, structural biology and human retrovirology,
particularly related to cancer and AIDS. As chief of
the Structural Virology Section, Dr. Wyatt and his research
team will focus on the structural and functional relationships
of HIV-1 outer coat envelope glycoproteins, and their
relationship with neutralizing antibodies, one type
of the body's defenders against infection. Dr. Wyatt's
laboratory will investigate how to manipulate gp120
glycoproteins (HIV envelope glycoprotein subunits) to
provoke an enhanced immune response to HIV possessing
the capacity for virus neutralization. The development
of modified gp120 glycoproteins and their use in a safe
and effective vaccine would be a major advance in the
HIV vaccine design arena.
Dr. Wyatt earned his undergraduate degree
in biology from Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. and
a Master's degree in biology from Southern Connecticut
State University in New Haven. He then completed a doctoral
degree in immunology from Tufts University School of
Medicine in Boston. Dr. Wyatt performed his postdoctoral
work at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where he conducted
research in the Institute's Division of Human Retrovirology
and later in the Department of Cancer Immunology and
AIDS. Upon completion of his training, Dr. Wyatt accepted
a junior faculty position as Instructor in the Departments
of Pathology and Medicine at the Harvard School of Medicine
and in the Department of Cancer Immmunology and AIDS
at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Dr. Wyatt is a member of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science and American
Society of Mircobiologists. Dr. Wyatt is a member of
the scientific advisory committee of the American Foundation
for AIDS Research. He has co-authored more than 35 scientific
papers and serves as an ad hoc reviewer on the
editorial boards of AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses,
The Journal of General Virology and the Journal
of Virology. |
