Honoring our volunteers
Dr.
Nava Sarver
For many years, Dr. Sarver collaborated with Project Inform's programs.
She was a key and long-standing member of Project Inform’s
Immune Restoration Think Tank, and was a member of Project Inform’s
National Board of Governors.
Dr. Sarver was the Chief of the Targeted Interventions Branch in
the Division of AIDS at the National Institutes of Health’s
(NIH). In this capacity, she coordinated and implemented research
that emphasizes and is directed toward the discovery and development
of novel treatment approaches to HIV infection, new viral targets,
immune-based and gene-based strategies, and therapeutic vaccines.
Through strategic planning and implementation of translational research,
her efforts brought gene therapy and immune restoration strategies
from laboratory to clinical safety and efficacy studies. Similarly,
she implemented programs for testing topical microbicides for preventing
HIV sexual transmission.
Before joining the Division of AIDS, Dr. Sarver pioneered and established
the bovine papilloma virus as a vector for the expression of mammalian
proteins in both bacterial and mammalian cells. This research accomplishment,
for which she was granted an inventor patent, was central to subsequent
genetic manipulation and expression of a number of critical human
proteins, such as Factor VIII (a clotting factor lacking in patients
afflicted with hemophilia A), gamma interferon, and endothelial
cells growth. This initial inroad into gene delivery was instrumental
in her subsequent application of gene-based concepts as potential
therapeutic strategies in HIV infections.
Dr. Sarver had been acknowledged for her achievements throughout
her scientific career, was an elected member to the Sigma Xi and
the Phi Beta Kappa societies, and was on the editorial board of
several scientific journals. She was acknowledged by the NIH for
original and stellar research efforts with an Award of Merit for
exceptional contributions in ribozyme and gene therapy for AIDS
and most recently, the NIH Director Award for original and relentless
contribution to HIV research and therapeutics strategies. Other
committee appointments include the NIH’s Office of AIDS Research
Therapeutics Coordinating Committee, NIH Liaison Committee for Gene
Therapy, the National Gene Vector Laboratory Steering Committee,
among others.
