Richard Whitley
Richard J. Whitley (born c. 1945) is a professor of pediatrics, microbiology and neurosurgery and scientist associated with the O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center and the UAB Department of Gene Therapy, and principal investigator and program director for the Antiviral Drug Discovery and Development Center (AD3C) at the UAB School of Medicine.
Whitley earned a bachelor of arts in chemistry at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina in 1967 and completed medical school at George Washington University in Washington D.C. in 1971. He served an internship in pediatrics, followed by a fellowship in infectious diseases at UAB Medical Center.
Whitley joined UAB's faculty as a professor in 1976 and has continued to conduct exploratory and clinical research in association with several groups. He was awarded the UAB President's Medal in 2007.
Much of Whitley's research has been conducted through the National Institutes of Health. In 2013 he was made the inaugural "Distinguished Clinical Research Scholar and Educator-in-Residence" for the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. During trials of a vaccine for the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, Whitley served on the NIH's data safety and monitoring board.
Whitley is a past president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the International Society of Antiviral Research. He is also a member of the board of directors of Gilead Sciences of Foster City, California, developers of the antiviral drug remdesivir.
References
- Carter, Kendra (March 19, 2014) "New antiviral drug discovery center established at UAB" UAB News
- Pradhan, Rachana (September 29, 2020) "UAB disease expert leads secret panel evaluating coronavirus vaccine possibilities." Kaiser Health News/Tribune Media Services/The Birmingham News
External links
- Richard Whitley at UAB.edu