Spotlight on new faculty: Ravi Dyavar, Ph.D.

Ravi Dyavar is a new faculty member in the College of Medicine. Here’s a brief rundown of his background and the expertise he brings to UNMC.

• Name: Ravi Dyavar, Ph.D.
• Hometown: Hyderabad, India
• New title and department at UNMC: Instructor, UNMC Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience

Research Interests:
Development of long acting antiretroviral therapies and chemical clearance of viral reservoirs to eradicate HIV/AIDS. I am interested in development of novel therapies to treat and cure HIV/AIDS.

How I fell in love with science:
My passion for science stems from learning about scientific advances in terms of vaccines and medicines that improved the quality of our lives.

Degrees:

• Postdoctoral scientist, Emory Vaccine Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University
  • Research Focus: HIV therapy and AIDS vaccines: During chronic HIV-1 infection, exhausted immune cells can be activated with immune inhibitory receptor targeted therapies. I have demonstrated that efficacy of Programmed Death 1 (PD-1) immune inhibitory receptor targeted therapy to treat HIV infection is based on control of non-specific activation of immune cells, inflammation and opportunistic bacterial and fungal infections, improved gut barrier integrity and associated viral control.
    HIV/AIDS DNA vaccine that carries viral proteins promotes antiviral immunity in the host. We synergized the effect of the previous DNA vaccines with CD40 Ligand, which enhanced protective immunity against AIDS viral infections.
• Ph.D. in biotechnology, National Center for Cell Science, University of Pune, India
  • Research Focus: HIV drug discovery: Biomolecules from marine animals are excellent source of novel drug candidates. I have identified and characterized a potent novel HIV-1 Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor from Villorita cyprinoides (black clam) species. I have also developed novel single reporters visual (GFP) and quantitative (Luciferase) based HIV-1 subtype C specific drug screening systems to identify novel drugs.
• Master’s, biochemistry, University of Hyderabad, India
• Bachelor’s, biology, Osmania University, India

Memberships:

• Editorial Board Member of Immunology and Infectious Diseases
• American Society of Microbiology

Three things people may not know about me:

• One of my hobbies is to collect postal stamps of various countries/categories.
• I love to watch action movies.
• I love to travel.