Dr. Kevin Morris The Scripps Research Institute, USA

Dr. Morris is a graduate of the University of California at Davis where he received his PhD studying the design and development of defective viruses as vaccine candidates. Under the mentorship of Drs. Flossie Wong-Staal and David Looney at the University of California San Diego, he began postdoctoral work where... read morehe developed both the FIV and HIV-2 lentiviral vector gene therapy systems, as well as discovering that siRNA-mediated Transcriptional Gene Silencing is operable in human cells. He then went on to study under John Rossi at the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope (BRI/COH) where he continued to explore the underlying mechanisms involved in siRNA-mediated TGS. Recently, Dr. Morris was appointed Assistant Professor at The Scripps Research Institute as well being an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the BRI/COH. His studies focus on siRNA-mediated TGS and the role RNAi might play in establishment and maintenance of HIV-1 latency and lentiviral based vector systems for the delivery of siRNAs in treating HIV-1 infection.