Paul D. Bieniasz

Biosketch

Paul Bieniasz graduated from the University of Bath, UK in 1990 with a BSc. degree in Biochemistry. He then trained at Imperial College, University of London, where he received a Ph.D. degree in Virology in 1996. He was an HHMI postdoctoral fellow at Duke Univiersity from 1996 to 1999. He was appointed Staff Investigator and Assistant Professor at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center and Rockefeller University in 1999. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2003, and Head, Laboratory of Retrovirology at the Rockefeller University in 2004. He was promoted to full Professor at the Rockefeller University in 2010. In 2017, Bieniasz departed from the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, relocating his laboratory the Rockefeller University campus. In 2022, Bieniasz was appointed to a named chair, the Purnell W. Choppin Professorship. Bieniasz has been an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 2008. He was a 2003 recipient of the Elizabeth Glaser Scientist Award from the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and was the 2010 recipient of the Eli Lilly and Company Research Award. He was elected to the American Academy of Microbiology and also received an NIH MERIT award in 2011. Bieniasz was awarded the Ohio State University Center for Retrovirus Research Distinguished Career award in 2015 and was also awarded the K.T. Jeang Retrovirology Prize the same year. He received a Distinguished Teaching Award from the Rockefeller University in 2017, and in 2019 was the recipient of the Biochemical Society Award from the UK’s Biochemical Society.

Research Interests

Dr. Bieniasz’s research on retroviruses and, more recently, coronaviruses aims to understand fundamental mechanisms of viral replication, and host defense by innate and adaptive immune systems. These studies involve the discovery and mechanistic exploration of germ-line encoded host proteins such as tetherin, Mx2, ZAP and others that provide intrinsic defense against viral infection. Elucidating mechanisms and evolution of host defense molecules and how viruses evade or antagonize these host defenses provides a basis for understanding host range restriction and a route to deriving novel animal models. The roles of HIV-1 capsid in the HIV-1 replication cycle are being studied, as are mechanisms and regulation of viral genome synthesis and replication, including HIV-1 latency. Escape from neutralizing antibodies is also under study, while antibody and nanobody based antiviral therapeutics are being developed.