Andrés Finzi

Biography

Dr. Finzi graduated from the Université de Montréal. He continues his postgraduate studies in virology in Dr. Joseph Sodroski’s laboratory at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Harvard Medical School) where he identifies key structural elements within HIV-1 envelope glycoproteins essential for viral entry. This discovery earned him the prestigious Mathilde Krim Scholarship, awarded by the American Society for AIDS Research (amfAR). Dr. Finzi began an academic career in the Department of Microbiology, Infectiology and Immunology at the Université de Montréal in September 2011, and received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Quebec Health Research Fund (FRQS). Since 2014, Dr. Finzi has been awarded a Canada Research Chair in retroviral entry and is member of the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine and Immunogen Design (CHAVI-ID). In 2016 Dr Finzi was awarded the Excellence Young Faculty Award by CRCHUM and by the Duke CHAVI-ID. Dr. Finzi has published his work in prestigious international journals including Science, Molecular Cell, PNAS, Nature Chemical Biology, PlosPathogens, Journal of Virology. Dr. Finzi sits on numerous national and international pairs committees.

Team

• Jérémie Prévost (étudiant au PhD)
• Nirmin Alsahafi (étudiant au PhD)
• Sai Priya Anand (étudiante MSc)
• Shilei Ding (étudiant postdoctoral)
• Jonathan Richard (étudiant postdoctoral)
• Sophie Baril (stagiaire)
• Iveta Demirova (stagiaire)
• Guillaume Beaudoin-Bussières (stagiaire)
• Félix Veillette (stagiaire)
• Halima Medjahed (assistante de recherche)
• Gabrielle Gendron-Lepage (technicienne)

Themes

• Virology
• Immunology

Research topics

• Structural and functional study of HIV-1 envelop glycoproteins gp120 and gp41
• Characterization of the underlying mechanisms governing anti-HIV-1 ADCC responses
• Study of the impact of Env conformation on humoral responses
• Development of new strategies to eliminate HIV-1-infected cells
• Development of new HIV-1 entry inhibitors
• Development of small molecules with the capacity to modulate Env conformation
• Development of new Env-based immunogens

Publications

• Veillette M, Désormeaux A, Medjahed H, Gharsallah N, Coutu M, Baalwa J, Guan Y, Lewis G, Ferrari G, Hahn B, Haynes B, Robinson J, Kaufmann D, Bonsignori M, Sodroski J and Finzi A. Interaction with Cellular CD4 Exposes HIV-1 Envelope Epitopes Targeted by Antibody-Dependent Cell-Mediated Cytotoxicity. Journal of Virology. 2014. 88(5):2633-44.
• Richard J., Veillette M., Brassard N., Iyer SS., Roger M., Martin L., Pazgier M., Schön A., Freire E., Routy JP., Smith III AB., Park J., Jones DM., Courter JR., Melillo BN., Kaufmann DE., Hahn BH., Permar S., Haynes B, Madani N., Sodroski J., and Finzi A. CD4 Mimetics Sensitize HIV-1-Infected Cells to ADCC. 2015. PNAS. 19;112(20):E2687-94.
• Richard J., Pacheco B., Gohain N., Veillette M., Ding S., Alsahafi N., Tolbert WD., Prévost J., Chapleau JP., Coutu M., Jia M., Brassard N., Park J., Courter JR., Melillo B., Martin L., Tremblay C., Hahn BH., Kaufmann DE., Wu X., Smith III AB., Sodroski J., Pazgier M. and Finzi A. Co-receptor binding site antibodies enable CD4-mimetics to expose conserved anti-cluster A ADCC epitopes on HIV-1 envelope glycoproteins.  EBioMedicine.  2016. 12:208-218.
• Prévost J., Zoubchenok D., Richard J., Veillette M., Pacheco B., Coutu M., Brassard MS., Ruxrungtham K., Bunupuradah T., Tovanabutra S., Hwang KK., Moody AM., Haynes BF., Bonsignori M., Sodroski J., Kaufmann DE., Shaw GM., Chenine AL. and Finzi A. Influence of the Envelope Gp120 Phe 43 Cavity on HIV-1 Sensitivity to ADCC Responses.  Journal of Virology.  2017. 91(7) e02452-16.