Rafick-Pierre Sékaly, Ph.D.

Co-director and Scientific Director of VGTI–Florida and Scientific Director of Basic Research and Strategic Planning; Director of the Laboratory of Microbiology and Immunology for the University of Montreal Hospital Centre's Research Centre

Rafick-Pierre Sékaly, Ph.D., is both co-director and scientific director of VGTI–Florida in Port St. Lucie. VGTI-Florida is the Florida-funded expansion of Oregon Health & Science University's highly successful Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute. The institute was created through a $60 million investment by the state of Florida in January 2008 and by $53 million in matching funds provided by the city of Port St. Lucie.

Dr. Sékaly also serves as scientific director of basic research and strategic planning, and director of the Laboratory of Microbiology and Immunology for the University of Montreal Hospital Centre's Research Centre. He is also scientific director for the National Laboratory of Immune Monitoring, collaboration between the University of Montreal and MDS Pharma. In addition, he serves as director of INSERM Unit 743 in Human Immunology, a unit of the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, France's major funding organization.

Dr. Sékaly has extensive expertise in vaccine research. Specifically, his group is among the world's leaders in HIV vaccine development as well as the generation of novel approaches for HIV and cancer vaccines. His work has resulted in the publication of more than 200 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals. His studies have also resulted in 20 patents. In addition, the Sékaly lab has received several prestigious research grants from the Canadian Government, the United States' National Institutes of Health and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dr Sékaly obtained his doctorate in biochemistry at the Université of Lausanne in 1984 and went on to perform a postdoctoral fellowship there, from 1984 to 1987, on immunogenetics and molecular biology of major histocompatibility complex molecules.

As founder and scientific director of the CANVAC Network of Centre of Excellence, as well as scientific director of Inserm Unit on Human Immunology, and now in his new position at VGTI-Florida, Dr. Sékaly has strived over the years to improve quality of life by using novel technologies and a multidisciplinary approach in order to develop vaccines for the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases like AIDS, hepatitis C and cancer. He currently is leading more than 10 clinical trials aimed at reconstituting the immune response in HIV- and HCV-infected patients as well as patients with cancer.