Professor Venigalla Rao was recently awarded a 5-year, multi million grant by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Already a highly esteemed biologist with 24 patents and multiple research awards to his name, the $5 million award from NIDA will support Dr Rao’s on-going work with HIV, a disease that affects 40 million people worldwide, reads a newsletter of Catholic University of America.
He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.
Looking at one of humanity’s greatest medical challenges, Dr Rao is determined to find the answer behind the cure for HIV through Catholic University’s Bacteriophage Medical Research Center, which he founded three years ago.
This past year, the international scientific magazine Nature Communications featured Rao’s gene therapy technology, which was developed on campus and has the potential to heal and cure a wide range of disorders.
“If we can repair the stem cells, then those repaired stem cells will repopulate the body”, Rao said. “The current HIV genetic disease will eventually be eliminated. The people don’t have to take any drugs, and they will be HIV resistant for future infections.”
Dr Rao is an undeniably ambitious researcher, but his modesty keeps him grounded. “I have no illusion that it will be an easy path to success”, Rao said. “I might fail. Nevertheless, if you don’t try, you will definitely fail. I think we have a plausible path. We have to work really hard, be very creative, build the right teams, work with the right people, and bring our resources. So, I’m willing to do that.”