Donald P. Francis, M.D., D.Sc.
President and Co-founder
Dr. Francis is one of the world’s most widely recognized scientists in the field of AIDS. As head of the AIDS laboratory at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the early ’80s, he was one of the first scientists to grasp the significance of the looming AIDS epidemic and worked closely with French researchers to prove that HIV was the agent that caused AIDS. He also was one of the first to sound an early warning that the nation’s blood supply was at risk from HIV.
His efforts to call attention to the AIDS threat and warn of the inadequacy of the public health response were chronicled in the book and movie And the Band Played On, journalist Randy Shilts’ account of the early years of the AIDS epidemic.
In addition to his work in the lab, Dr. Francis has extensive experience fighting deadly infectious diseases. During his 21-year-career with the CDC, Dr. Francis played a key role in eradicating smallpox and led the effort to contain the world’s first outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus. He also was one of two principal investigators who conducted Phase III clinical trials for the successful Hepatitis B vaccine, which bears many similarities to AIDSVAX.
Dr. Francis retired from the CDC in 1992 and began work with Genentech, Inc., which had made significant investments in an HIV/AIDS vaccine. In 1995, Dr. Francis and fellow retrovirologist Dr. Robert Nowinski guided the spin-off of Genentech’s HIV vaccine unit and founded VaxGen to continue the vital work as an independent company.
Dr. Francis conducted his undergraduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his M.D. from Northwestern University and his Doctor of Science in Virology from Harvard. He completed his internship and residency in pediatrics at the University of Southern California Medical Center in Los Angeles and his fellowship in infectious diseases at Harvard.