May 23, 2019 — Marco Salemi, Ph.D., an internationally recognized researcher in the department of pathology, immunology and laboratory medicine in the UF College of Medicine, has recently been appointed to the Stephany W. Holloway University Chair in AIDS Research.

The Holloway Chair was established in 2004 thanks to the generous gift of Orlando native John W. Holloway in fulfillment of his personal commitment to fight AIDS and to honor his sister Stephany, who died in 1990 of complications from the disease.

Funds from the Holloway Chair will play a significant role in advancing Salemi’s innovative research program. Salemi is recognized as an international expert in the field of pathogen molecular evolution and bioinformatics. His research over the past 25 years has been applied to the analysis of the genomeof viral (including HIV, SIV, HCV and Zika) and bacterial pathogens (MRSA, V. cholerae) that contribute to the epidemic spread and pathogenesis of these organisms.

The Holloway chair provides critical funding to help Salemi continue his research into host-pathogen interactions in chronic infectious diseases using novel artificial intelligence-based algorithms. It also will foster the development of new approaches to managing these important diseases that affect millions of people around the globe.

Salemi, an associate professor and member of the UF Emerging Pathogens Institute, was a Marie-Curie fellow at the Rega Institute of the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. He received his doctorate in science from the Catholic University of Leuven in 1999 and has worked as a postdoctoral scientist at the University of California – Irvine with Walter M. Fitch, one of the founding fathers of molecular phylogenetics.