WHO Brief Biography – Guidelines meeting on the public health response to HIV drug resistance - 2017

AVILA-RIOS, Santiago

Infectious Diseases Research Centre (CIENI), National Institute of Respiratory Diseases

(INER)

BSc (Pharmaceutical Biological Chemistry), MSc (Molecular Medical Microbiology),

PhD (Biomedical Sciences)

Mexico City, Mexico

Dr. Santiago Avila-Ríos is a researcher in medical sciences and head of the Molecular

Biology Laboratory at the Centre for Research in Infectious Diseases (CIENI) of the National

Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER) in Mexico City. He is a member of the Mexican

National Investigators System (SNI).

Dr. Santiago Avila-Rios conducts research on HIV molecular epidemiology, drug resistance

surveillance and HLA-associated HIV evolution in the Mesoamerican Region. He also

coordinates the participation of the CIENI/INER as a WHO Regional Reference Laboratory

for HIV genotyping within the Technical Cooperation Network for HIV Drug Resistance. He

directly coordinates de Molecular Biology Laboratory of the CIENI/INER, mainly focused on

Sanger and next generation sequencing. He is co-coordinator of the Mesoamerican Project, a

large collaborative study involving investigators from Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras,

El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Panama to assess HIV molecular epidemiology, transmitted drug

resistance and viral evolution in the region. He has authored over 30 papers in peer reviewed

journals and has experience in engagement with government health organisations in both

research and policy development in Latin American countries.