Roizman receives award for herpes simplex research

Bernard Roizman, the Joseph Regenstein Distinguished Service Professor in Molecular Genetics & Cell Biology and a leading expert on herpes simplex virus, has been named the winner of the eighth annual Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Infectious Disease Research.

The award was presented to Roizman Thursday, Dec. 3, in New York.

Roizman mapped the genome of herpes simplex virus, described how the virus infects host cells and later developed recombinant DNA techniques that have enabled him and others to determine the role of specific genes in viral infection and replication.

His research laid the groundwork for current efforts to develop a vaccine against herpes simplex virus, as well as for gene therapies and anti-cancer treatments that employ altered forms of the virus.

“Bernard Roizman’s studies of herpes viruses over the past three to four decades have largely defined this field,” said Peter Palese, chairman of the department of microbiology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

“He has been and remains a towering figure and intellectual force in virology and in biological science in general.”