Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Super Mario is top of the profs
Expert is leading fight against HIV/AIDS
An Airdrie-born professor who is now a worldleading researcher on HIV and AIDS has been named as Strathclyde University’s alumnus of the year.
Professor Mario Stevenson received the honour at a recent graduation ceremony in recognition of his contribution to, and achievements in, researching disease.
He grew up in Airdrie and is a former pupil of St Patrick’s High in Coatbridge, and is now chief of the infectious diseases division at Miami University.
In recent years, his work has focused on strategies for the cure of HIV and AIDS, as well as developing tests for Zika and drug-resistant viruses.
Professor Stevenson said: “Antivirals have transformed the prognosis for individuals living with HIV – life expectancy for an infected individual has increased by over 30 years. However, in 2018 we still don’t have a cure that would rid the almost 40 million people worldwide of their infection, and we still don’t have a vaccine that would prevent HIV.
“For that reason, health agencies around the world have taken on the bold task of developing an AIDS vaccine and cure.
“My own research over the past 10 years has been on identifying how HIV evades elimination by antiretrovirals; how and where it hides out in infected individuals, since answers to those questions could lead to strategies for the cure.
“Some of my research is beginning to suggest that macrophages, the cell that I researched as a PhD student at Strathclyde, may be part of the reason HIV can persist in individuals in the face of antiviral suppression.
“The identification of a cure for HIV/AIDS is arguably amongst the most important scientific challenges facing researchers today.”
Professor Stevenson gained a doctorate in pharmaceutical sciences at Strathclyde in 1984, and then went on to study at the University of Nebraska medical centre, where he served as a professor from 1993 to 1995.
He then joined University of Massachusetts medical school and was director of its centre for AIDS research from 15 years. He currently serves on the trustee board of the American Foundation for AIDS Research.
To date, he has published more than 100 research papers and has won numerous prestigious awards, including fellowships of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Microbiology.
Strathclyde’s alumnus of the year award is made “in celebration of the contributions [recipients] make in their chosen fields, in the UK and overseas.”
Professor Robin Plevin, head of Strathclyde institute of pharmacy and biomedical sciences, said: “Mario’s research is aimed at uncovering how viruses persist despite drug treatments, why AIDS is so destructive to the human immune system and what other factors influence how viruses interact with the human host.
“His authority does not stop at HIV; he’s also currently leading an international fight to develop a new test to diagnose the Zika virus, transmitted primarily by infected mosquitoes.
“What comes across is that he cares deeply for the people whose lives he is trying to improve or save through his research, or through empowering his students and staff to achieve greater excellence in what they do.”
He cares deeply for the people..