I am pleased to inform you that Dr. Javier Marcelo Di Noia will be joining the IRCM team as a research unit director in immunology and virology.
Dr. Di Noia received his Ph.D. at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, under the supervision of Dr. A.Carlos Frasch. During his Ph.D. thesis work, he made major contributions to elucidating the diversity of a family of complex surface antigens that help Trypanosoma cruzi, a parasite infecting 16 million people in Latin America, to evade the adaptive immune response. He was supported by fellowships from the Argentinean National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) and the Fundación Antorchas.
Dr. Di Noia is presently completing his postdoctoral training at the MRC – Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, United Kingdom, under the supervision of Dr Michael S. Neuberger. He has been studying the mechanisms underpinning affinity maturation of the antibody response. The results of Dr. Di Noia’s work have been published in prestigious scientific journals such as Nature. He has been supported by a Cesar Milstein Fellowship from the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, and by Fellowships from the Leukemia Research Fund and Celltech.
Dr. Di Noia is planning to continue to investigate the mechanisms that allow the generation of genetic and functional diversity in different organisms through the regulated expression of enzymes capable of editing nucleic acids like those belonging to the AID/APOBEC family.
Dr. Di Noia brings valuable expertise that will further strengthen the fields of immunology and virology at the Institute. His arrival is expected in June 2006.
On behalf of everyone, I am delighted to welcome Dr. Di Noia to IRCM.
Louis-Gilles Durand, PhD, Eng.,
Acting President and Scientific Director
