RELATIONSHIP OF THE VIROLOGIST PROFESSOR ADOLFO GARCÍA SASTRE WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF SALAMANCA AND THE ROYAL NATIONAL ACADEMY OF PHARMACY

Abstract

We give some biographical details of the virologist Professor Adolfo Garcia Sastre, as a Graduate student (1981-1986) in the Biology School of University of Salamanca and during his PhD Thesis (1986-1990) in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Chairman Prof J.A. Cabezas), under the supervision of Prof. Enrique Villlar and obtaining the highest academic marks. The research lines that he established in collaboration with his Thesis director, with Prof. J.A Cabezas and others, as well as his results during his stay at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, are also highlighted. His findings in this period were published in prestigious Virology and Biochemistry journals and presented at national and international meetings. Thereafter, when he moved to Mount Sinai in New York, he met Prof Mariano Esteban, then working at Downstate Medical Center in New York, SUNY, and both, in collaboration with the group of Prof. Ruth Nussenzweig and Fidel Zavala at New York University, set up seminal immunological studies that are the basis for combined vaccination approaches, prime/boost and activation of CD8+ T cells, now widely used in preclinical and clinical studies. The scientific research contributions of Prof. García Sastre are growing at an exponential rate, opening new horizons in understanding the molecular biology of emerging viruses, their pathology, virus-host cell interactions and strategies of virus control.