| Dr. Walker is Professor of Medicine and Director of the Division of AIDS at Harvard
Medical School; Director of the Partners AIDS Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital; and a Howard Hughes
Medical Institute Investigator. He obtained his undergraduate training at the University of Colorado and the Swiss
Federal Technical Institute, and graduated from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Following an
internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, he
completed a postdoctoral fellowship in infectious diseases in the laboratory of Dr. Robert T. Schooley, studying
the cellular immune response to HIV in infected persons. He now spends the majority of his time in the laboratory
researching the way in which the body fights chronic viral infections. His basic science research focuses on cellular
immune responses to HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV). Dr. Walker also continues his work as a clinician with a
specialty is infectious diseases, focusing on the treatment of persons with HIV/AIDS.
Dr. Walker's contributions include the first identification of a strong cellular immune response to HIV in infected
persons, demonstrating that the body's natural defenses vigorously attempt to combat this infection over the course
of progressive infection. His studies of the very small fraction of infected persons who are able to spontaneously
control HIV infection led to the identification of important correlates of immune protection, namely demonstration
that strong T helper cell responses and strong cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses are present in persons who are
able to keep the virus in check without drug therapy. His laboratory has also shown that immediate treatment of
acute HIV infection with potent combination antiviral therapy can enhance functional immune responses to the point
that people can control HIV without drug therapy. Current efforts focus on rebuilding immune responses to HIV and
HCV in persons already infected. In addition, he has been involved in collaborative research in Africa for over
10 years, and with the University of Natal in Durban, South Africa for the last three years, where he is engaged
in a collaborative project building an AIDS Research Center to serve sub-Saharan Africa. His group has also recently
been awarded a 10 million dollar five year contract from the NIH to perform vaccine preparedness work globally.
|
|
Dr. Walker is a member of the American Association of Immunologists, the Infectious
Diseases Society of America, the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians.
He is the recipient of a Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist Professorship and a Merit Award from the NIH.
He has been a member of the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School since 1980 and has been affiliated with
Massachusetts General Hospital for the same period.
|
