Lawrence Corey
Lawrence Corey (born February 14, 1947) is professor of Medicine and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Washington, a member of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division and past president and director of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. He also serves as the founding director and co-principal investigator of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network. The American physician-scientist is an internationally recognized expert in virology, immunology and vaccine development. His discoveries over the past 30 years are cited as having deepened the understanding of both the pathogenesis and treatment of diseases caused by viruses , especially human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and herpes viruses. Corey has pioneered some of the most significant advances in the creation of safe and effective antivirals for herpes viruses and HIV, the testing of experimental vaccines for HIV and genital herpes, and the designing of new methods for diagnosing and monitoring therapies for viral infections. Education. Corey received his Bachelor of Science and M.D. from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and received postgraduate training at the University of Michigan, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and University of Washington. Research and career. In the early 1980s , Corey worked with Nobel Prize-winning biochemist and pharmacologist Dr. Gertrude Elion to demonstrate that an antiviral that was selective and specific for a viral-specified enzyme could be safely and effectively administered to control a chronic viral infection (herpes simplex virus type 2 or HSV-2). Corey first conceived of and demonstrated the core concepts and direct line association between quantitative viral load reduction and clinical benefit using topical, intravenous and oral formulations of acyclovir in classic studies performed between 1980 and 1984. Acyclovir was the first antiviral drug to get rapid approval from the FDA, and it was Corey 's studies that defined its use in genital herpes. These studies led to the licensure for acyclovir in a wide variety of infections such as HSV-1, HSV-2 and varicella chickenpox virus, including the first use of an antiviral for daily long term use. Acyclovir and its derivatives valacyclovir and famciclovir are the most prescribed antivirals in the world: over 400 million people have HSV-2 infection. These early studies led by Corey were directly responsible for the subsequent successful involvement of the pharmaceutical and medical sciences communities to develop effective antiviral therapy for HIV and hepatitis B. In 1987, Corey directed  the NIH supported AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG), which was established to test antivirals to HIV-1, and conducted pivotal clinical trials demonstrating the use of the antiretroviral drug AZT to reduce maternal-fetal transmission of HIV and the usefulness of combinations of antiretrovirals to prolong survival from HIV. During this time, his laboratory demonstrated that HIV circulated in plasma well before the development of AIDS. The ACTG subsequently demonstrated that the initiation of therapy early during asymptomatic stages of HIV infection reduced progression to HIV and that combinations of antiretrovirals (3>2>1 drug) were critical to the control of HIV replication  and management; the result being that HIV control has enabled life expectancy to increase globally. Triple combination therapy with two nucleosides and a protease inhibitor demonstrated a marked reduction in viral load, increase in CD4+ T-cell count and lowering of activation markers with the addition of the protease inhibitor. Through the ACTG, he also was the first to lead the integration of community members into clinical research activities. In the mid-1990s, Corey increasingly focused his work in the area of vaccine development, and in 1998 worked with the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to develop  a global clinical trials group to speed the development of HIV vaccines. In 2002, Corey became the major driver in conceiving of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise. The Enterprise is one of the few scientific programs that is overseen by leaders of the major industrialized countries of the world. One of Corey's major scientific initiatives has been to study and develop better therapy for the treatment and prevention of infectious disease associated cancers such as Kaposi sarcoma and Burkitt lymphoma. In the mid-2000s, that led Corey to launch a partnership between Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the Uganda  Cancer Institute. On July 30, 2010, Dr. Corey was named the fourth president of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. One of his major initiatives was to increase the strength of the Fred Hutch's translational research programs and its commitment to bring better therapies and preventions for cancer to the developing world. In May 2015, the Fred Hutch/UCI partnership led to the opening of the first comprehensive cancer center jointly constructed by US and African institutions in sub-Saharan Africa: the UCI-Fred Hutch Cancer Centre. In 2013, as an outgrowth of his work in T-cell immunology , Corey became a cofounder of Juno Therapeutics, a company devoted to using genetically engineered T cells to fight cancer. Corey's early research dealt with herpes simplex viruses and he headed several landmark studies defining the disease and leading the licensure of acyclovir and valacyclovir for its treatment. This included a study to reduce acquisition among sexual partners. Between 1988 and 1998, Corey published a series of key studies showing the association between infection with HSV-2 and HIV-1. These studies led to pilot and large sale clinical trials of anti-HSV-2 therapy to reduce HIV acquisition and transmission. In 2000 , Corey conducted the first discordant couple study using antiviral therapy for HSV-2. His publication in 2004 on reduction of transmission of HSV-2 was the first to demonstrate that antivirals could reduce transmission of infections to others (treatment as prevention), a concept subsequently utilized by the HPTN 052 protocol team using continuous ART to reduce transmission of HIV to discordant couples. This latter approach is one of the current cornerstones of public health practices for reducing the morbidity and potentially the transmission of HIV-I. More recently, his research group has shown the importance of the mucosal immune system in controlling  HSV reactivation, leading to current momentum to try to develop novel vaccines for treating genital herpes. Previously, the scientific consensus for HSV-2 pathogenesis was that virus reactivation was infrequent and determined by virus-neuronal interactions at the ganglion level and that most reactivations resulted in genital lesions. Corey has been a central figure in the field of HIV vaccine development. The HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) now includes investigators on five continents spanning more than 30 cities and is leading the research for phase 1–3 clinical trials of candidate HIV vaccines globally. The HVTN as of 2018 is conducting 4  large scale efficacy trials in North America, South America and several countries in sub-Saharan Africa. On Dec. 1, 2015 the work of Corey and HTVN scientists pursuing a vaccine to potentially halt HIV and AIDS was highlighted in an HBO/VICE special report titled "Countdown to Zero." Honors. Corey was a member of the editorial board of the New England Journal of Medicine. He is a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and a member of the American Epidemiological Society, American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the Association of American Physicians. In addition, he is the recipient  of the Pan American Society's Clinical Virology Award, the American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association's Parran Award, and the University of Michigan Medical School's Distinguished Alumnus Award. In 2008, he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine and in 2012 elected a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has published over 900 scientific publications and editorials (as of 2018). Selected works. • Zhu J, Peng T, Johnston C, Phasouk K, Kask AS, Klock A, Jin L, Diem K, Koelle DM, Wald A, Robins H, Corey L. Immune surveillance by CD8αα+ skin-resident T cells  in human herpes virus infection. Nature. 2013 May 23;497(7450):494-7. PMC 3663925 • Hammer SM, Sobieszczyk ME, Janes H, Karuna ST, Mulligan MJ, Grove D, Koblin BA, Buchbinder SP, Keefer MC, Tomaras GD, Frahm N, Hural J, Anude C, Graham BS, Enama ME, Adams E, Dejesus E, Novak RM, Frank I, Bentley C, Ramirez S, Fu R, Koup RA, Mascola JR, Nabel GJ, Montefiori DC, Kublin J, McElrath MJ, Corey L, Gilbert PB; the HVTN 505 Study Team. Efficacy Trial of a DNA/rAd5 HIV-1 Preventive Vaccine. N Engl J Med. 2013 Nov 28;369(22):2083-92. • Johnston C, Zhu J, Jing L , Laing K, McClurkan C, Klock A, Diem K, Stanaway J, Tronstein E, Kwok WW, Huang ML, Selke S, Fong Y, Magaret A, Koelle DM, Wald A, and Corey L. Virologic and immunologic evidence of multifocal genital herpes simplex virus type 2 infection. J. Virol. 2014 May;88(9):4921-31. • Wald A, Corey L, Timmler B, Magaret A, Warren T, Tyring S, Johnston C, Kriesel J, Fife K, Galitz L, Stoelben S, Huang M-L, Selke S, Stobernack H-P, Ruebsamen-Schaeff H and Birkmann A. Helicase-Primase Inhibitor Pritelivir for HSV-2 infection. N Eng J Med 2014 Jan 16;370(3):201-10. • Jin X , Morgan C, Yu X, DeRosa S, Tomaras GD, Montefiori DC, Kublin J, Corey L, Keefer MC; NIAID HIV Vaccine Trials Network. Multiple factors affect immunogenicity of DNA plasmid HIV vaccines in human clinical trials. Vaccine. 2015 May 11;33(20):2347-53. • Diem K, Magaret A, Klock A, Jin L, Zhu J, Corey L. Image analysis for accurately counting CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in human tissue. J Virol Methods. 2015 Sep 15;222:117-21. • Janes H, Herbeck JT, Tovanabutra S, Thomas R, Frahm N, Duerr A, Hural J, Corey L, Self SG, Buchbinder SP et al. HIV-1 infections with multiple founders  are associated with higher viral loads than infections with single founders. Nat Med. 2015 Oct;21(10):1139-41. • Dimitrov D, Kublin JG, Ramsey S and Corey L. Are clade specific HIV vaccines a necessity? An analysis based on mathematical models. EBioMedicine. 2015 Dec;2(12):2062-2069. • Tjernlund A, Burgener A, Lindvall JM, Peng T, Zhu J, Öhrmalm L, Picker LJ, Broliden K, McElrath MJ, Corey L. In Situ Staining and Laser Capture Microdissection of Lymph Node Residing SIV Gag-Specific CD8+ T cells-A Tool to Interrogate a Functional Immune Response Ex Vivo. PLoS One. 2016 Mar 17;11(3):e0149907. PMC4795610 • Joshua T Schiffer; David  A Swan; Amalia Magaret; Anna Wald; Lawrence Corey. Mathematical Modeling Predicts that Increased HSV-2 Shedding in HIV-1 Infected Persons is Due to Poor Immunologic Control in Both Ganglia and Genital Mucosa. PLOS One. 2016 Jun 10;11(6):e0155124. • Churchyard G, Mlisana K, Karuna S, Williamson AL, Williamson C, Morris L, Tomaras GD, De Rosa SC, Gilbert PB, Gu N, Yu C, Mkhize NN, Hermanus T, Allen M, Pensiero M, Barnett SW, Gray G, Bekker LG, Montefiori DC, Kublin J, Corey L. Sequential Immunization with gp140 Boosts Immune Responses Primed by Modified Vaccinia Ankara or DNA in HIV-Uninfected South African Participants. PLoS  One. 2016 Sep 1;11(9):e0161753. • Huang Y, Zhang L, Ledgerwood J, Grunenberg N, Bailer R, Isaacs A, Seaton K, Mayer KH, Capparelli E, Corey L, Gilbert PB. Population pharmacokinetics analysis of VRC01, an HIV-1 broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibody, in healthy adults. MAbs. 2017 Jul;9(5):792-800.