Dinner with a Doctor, After Hours

This Dinner with a Doctor is an outlier of sorts. We asked two of Emory’s most prominent biomedical researchers, Raymond Schinazi and Dennis Liotta, to host a dinner with a lively group of mid-career researchers and innovators, discussing what they do and how and why they do it.

Liotta, Samuel Candler Dobbs Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, and Schinazi, Frances Winship Walters Professor of Pediatrics, co-developed the antivirals that transformed HIV from a fatal disease into a manageable chronic condition.

“I started in drug development in the late 1980s and I probably wouldn’t have gotten very far if not for my partner sitting across the table—we turned out to be an exceptionally good complement to each other,” Liotta said. “I was a pretty good chemist and Raymond, although he was trained as a chemist, became an expert virologist. There was a real synergy between the two of us.”

Drugs they developed have saved and improved millions of lives around the globe. Both are still actively involved in academic drug discovery, searching for more effective therapies for diseases from hepatitis to herpes to cancer to emerging viruses.

As the panelists—Ann Chahroudi, Ameeta Kalokhe, Dylan Baker, Nadine Harris, Brian Zanoni, and Kumiko Newmark—settled into their seats at Srithai restaurant at Emory Point, the conversation was already going full tilt.

The roundtable captured the zeitgeist of Emory research at this pivotal moment: the researchers’ pride in the work they do, the uncertainty of what is to come, and the determination to push forward.

The first question was posed to Schinazi and Liotta: Is the harsh political climate toward university research a blip on the radar or a new reality?

“It’s not a blip,” said Liotta. “If you have experienced personnel in your lab and all of a sudden you run out of funds, even temporarily, and you have to let them go, you’ve crippled the ability of the lab to function. A lot of our younger people are seeing this and they’re saying, ‘Am I making the right choice, going into a research career?’ So there are the obvious ways it’s affecting funding but it’s also these ripple effects, which could be much more destructive long-term.”

Schinazi believes things will stabilize in the long run. “It’s like a pendulum, it goes one way, it will come back. I’ve still been writing grants and getting grants. I believe the National Institute of Health has leverage and they will do what they can to help the scientists. They understand the severity of the problem. Take COVID—we all basically lost two years. But we did some of our best research during that time. It puts you under stress to do something different and innovative.”

The panelists each gave an overview of research they’re currently involved in, from a start-up focused on creating a mobile app for patients and their caregivers, to searching for ways to eliminate virus reservoirs in children living with HIV, to trauma-informed care for veterans, to how best to use telemedicine to ensure medication compliance.

Much of the conversation focused on how rewarding it is to make leaps in therapies and techniques to help patients and populations. But frustrations common to researchers were also shared: The difference between discovering a helpful new approach and successfully implementing it; the impact of external stressors (lack of insurance coverage, the housing crisis); working with industry sponsors; cobbling together funds from different sources; and overcoming skepticism.

Being a researcher, it seems, is an exercise in being persistent, finding ways around obstacles, continuing to believe in the importance of your work, and seeing it through to impact. Even when the going gets rough.

Two male doctors in white coats sit in a lab. — Dennis Liotta (left) and Raymond Schinazi are still actively engaged in drug development at Emory.

Dennis Liotta (left) and Raymond Schinazi are still actively engaged in drug development at Emory.

NEVER A DULL MOMENT: After their pioneering drug discoveries of antivirals used by 94 percent of people with HIV around the globe, Schinazi and Liotta might well have retired to a tropical isle, collecting awards, honors and royalties. That not being their nature, however, they remain professors at the university, establishing groups such as Emory Institute for Drug Development (EIDD) and Drug Innovation Ventures at Emory (DRIVE), and founding biotech companies. They have collected many prestigious awards, true, but also dozens more patents and FDA-approved therapeutics.

They have continued their academic research, drug development, and publishing at a prolific pace. Both are still working on HIV, addressing challenges like drug resistance, finding a functional cure, and eliminating viral reservoirs in the body. Schinazi, who leads the Lab of Biochemical Pharmacology at Emory’s School of Medicine, continues to work on developing more safe and effective antiviral agents and promising compounds for a host of diseases from hepatitis to herpes, as well as effective treatments for conditions such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and cryptosporidiosis. Liotta is focused on discovering and developing novel antiviral, anticancer, and anti-inflammatory drugs, particularly targeting unmet medical needs and neurological/oncological conditions. He also has drugs in clinical trials for treating conditions ranging from subarachnoid hemorrhages to hot flashes.

Nadine Harris, assistant professor of medicine

Nadine Harris’s research focuses on identifying and reducing barriers to HIV prevention strategies in veterans, including improving access to long-acting injectable PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis), with a special interest in reaching veterans in rural Georgia through telemedicine. She also works to improve aging and reduce cardiovascular disease in older people living with HIV.

“It was really inspiring to see how humble Drs. Schinazi and Liotta are, given that their work has benefited millions of people living with HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C,” she said. “Their work highlights the importance of collaboration in successful research. I was also struck by how motivated they are to continue to build on such an already impactful body of work. It was equally meaningful to be surrounded by colleagues from different areas of HIV care who are so passionate and committed to what they do.”

“The past year has been very challenging for Emory researchers and many of my colleagues. It is critically important that research at Emory continues and is supported by leadership. Even within HIV, there’s still so much more to learn beyond developing drugs or pursuing a cure. That includes basic but important work, like understanding what gets in the way of people accessing care or finding better ways to reach those with HIV who live in more remote or underserved communities. Equally important is sustaining a strong research pipeline that supports young, smart, and motivated individuals with varied perspectives who are interested in pursuing this work and advancing the field.”

Dylan Baker, assistant professor of medicine

Dylan Baker’s research focuses on on implementing long-acting PrEP to prevent HIV, particularly in underserved populations such as Black women, by studying strategies for health care providers. As associate medical director of the Grady PrEP Clinic, he launched one of the Southeast’s largest long-acting injectable PrEP programs. His work demonstrates high adherence and low discontinuation, offering a replicable model for HIV prevention in resource-limited settings. “You have an intervention and you try it, but you have to also consider all the pieces it takes to make the intervention sustainable over time,” he says.

“I was inspired by Dr. Shinazi speaking about how he loves to meet patients that have been impacted by his work because it helps to put a face on the impact of his discoveries,” he says.

Kumiko Newmark, founder & CEO of JourneyLights

Kumiko Newmark, a 2018 MBA graduate of Emory’s Goizueta Business School, was motivated by what she saw her own family members with serious illnesses go through, and had a vision of helping other families in similar circumstances. Healro is a mobile app Newmark’s startup is developing to help patients and their families navigate the daily realities of chronic conditions. The health navigation platform “gathers essential information into a private care space that fosters connectedness and brings peace of mind by making care feel more manageable,” she says, by streamlining medication lists, symptom tracking, and practical insights.

“What inspired me at the dinner was seeing the passion and commitment everyone brings to their work,” she said. “The research being done at Emory really reflects the spirit of the university: a genuine mix of curiosity, courage, teamwork, and a commitment to discovering creative ways to improve lives. Seeing how much Emory’s researchers care about their work has given me a deeper appreciation for the impact that thoughtful, rigorous research can have. For society, their work matters because it tackles issues that make a real difference in people’s lives. Whether it’s advancing public health or addressing complex scientific and social challenges, the research at Emory is driven by people who truly want to help others.”

Ameeta Kalokhe, professor of medicine and public health

Ameeta Kalokhe’s research includes intimate partner violence, community violence against people with HIV, and PTSD. Her work focuses on developing strategies to improve patient outcomes and create community-based interventions, such as enhancing HIV services with behavioral health care and studying the experiences of people living with HIV in the US and India.

“I heard stories of resilience, perseverance, and creativity in challenging times. Perhaps what I appreciated most is that we are all from different fields of science/research and we wouldn’t usually connect just to talk and present our realities with seemingly no goal. It was really nice to have just organic, unstructured discussion space,” she says.

“The research done here and by colleagues elsewhere contributes to our understanding of the world, the many factors that impact our health, and the development of sound methods to intervene to protect and further the wellbeing for all in our community.”

Ann Chahroudi, professor of pediatrics

Ann Chahroudi’s research centers on the viral pathogenesis and treatment for diseases like HIV, Zika virus, and pediatric COVID. Her pediatric HIV research centers on understanding how HIV hides in reservoirs in the body and testing strategies to eliminate it. She is a staff physician at Ponce Family, Youth and Pediatric Clinic and an attending physician in infectious disease at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

“To be successful in research, you have to work hard, obviously, and also be determined and persevere in the face of failure—and there is a lot of failure in research. I think about the number of grants I submitted to the NIH in my first few years as a junior faculty member and the number I got initially was zero,” she says. “Physician-scientists are used to being the cream of the crop. Some get intimidated, give up a little too early, or find a different career path that fits their passion. Others keep plugging along, submitting, revising, and getting all the feedback they can. Once they break through, it seems like the world opens up.”

Brian Zanoni, associate professor of pediatrics

Brian Zanoni, medical director of the Ponce Family, Youth and Pediatric Clinic, focuses his research on improving health outcomes for adolescents and young adults with HIV, particularly those who acquired it perinatally, by studying strategies to boost engagement in care and interventions like mHealth (mobile health) to improve retention. He has done significant work in the US and South Africa to investigate barriers to care, and developed the HARTS scale (HIV Adolescent Readiness for Transition) for children needing more support as they transition through the teen years to adult care.

Zanoni was inspired to study HIV after he worked in Botswana because of a hiring freeze. “What was supposed to be a year ended up being my career,” he says. “When I saw the benefit you could achieve by helping children with HIV, it was hard to not do that.”

By Mary Loftus, design Peta Westmaas, photos Jack Kearse

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