Phillip Berman
Phillip Berman, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President of Research and Development
Dr. Berman is the inventor of AIDSVAX and directs VaxGen’s vaccine development program.
Dr. Berman’s research on an HIV vaccine dates back to the early ’80s. As a principal scientist at Genentech, Inc., Dr. Berman participated in the discovery that antibody to gp120, the protein on the surface of HIV, could neutralize HIV. He led another major breakthrough in 1990 when he and his team developed a vaccine that prevented HIV infection in chimpanzees, the host of HIV. Dr. Berman also conducted molecular epidemiological studies and selected new antigens to expand the vaccine’s breadth of protective immunity.
In 1997, Dr. Berman joined VaxGen, where his research has led to the development of AIDSVAX, an updated version of the vaccine he developed at Genentech.
He began his postdoctoral career in 1977 conducting research in neurobiology at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif. In 1981, when the first breakthrough in the development of recombinant DNA was described, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to pursue this new field. He has published more than 85 scientific articles and holds multiple patents.
Dr. Berman earned a bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at Dartmouth Medical School.
