Vincent Racaniello

Vincent R. Racaniello (born January 2, 1953) is a Higgins Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons.

He is a co-author of a textbook on virology, Principles of Virology.

Racaniello has received the Irma T. Hirschl, Searle Scholars, Eli Lilly, Julius Youngner and NIH Merit awards.

He has also been a Harvey Society Lecturer at Rockefeller University, the Hilleman Lecturer at the University of Chicago, and university lecturer at Columbia University.

Spring of 2022, ETH Zurich awarded Racaniello the Richard R. Ernst award and lecture for his scientific communication work.

He graduated from Cornell University in 1974 (BA, biological sciences) and completed his PhD in the laboratory of Peter Palese in 1980, studying genetic reassortment of influenza virus.

As a post-doctoral fellow in David Baltimore's laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1979–1982), Racaniello used recombinant DNA technology to clone and sequence the genome of the small RNA animal virus poliovirus.

Using these tools, he generated the first infectious clone of an animal RNA virus.

Construction of the infectious clone revolutionized modern virology.

Racaniello established his own research laboratory at Columbia University in the fall of 1982.

The aim of his laboratory is to understand replication and pathogenesis of small

RNA animal viruses, picornaviruses.

The reproductive cycle of a virus begins with its attachment

to and entry into the cytoplasm of a cell.

His laboratory identified CD155 (poliovirus receptor, PVR); a cell surface protein, and member of the immunoglobin superfamily as the protein that mediates this process.

Understanding how the interaction between virus and cell alters the viral

particle and how virus entry is facilitated by the interaction has helped understand the

means by which poliovirus infection is initiated.

Humans are the only known natural host for poliovirus.

The study of viral disease is therefore only feasible with the generation of a small animal model.

Though not

susceptible to poliovirus infection, murine cells do allow for efficient replication of poliovirus RNA introduced into the cytoplasm.

Taking advantage of this observation,

Racaniello's laboratory constructed the first small animal model of poliomyelitis.

Mice

producing the human CD155 protein were generated and infected with poliovirus.

These mice exhibited all symptoms and pathology of poliomyelitis observed in humans, including flaccid paralysis and spinal cord lesions.

These mice today are used not only to continue to understand poliovirus pathogenesis but

as a means to test the safety of stocks of the polio vaccine.

Poliomyelitis is a disease of the central nervous system; however, it is believed that

CD155 is present on the surface of most if not all cells of the body.

An element present

within the virus RNA was hypothesized to govern viral tropism which tissues the virus

infected.

Newborn mice producing PVR were infected with wild-type poliovirus and a chimeric poliovirus in which this element was replaced with the same region from hepatitis C virus,

He also served as the 2015 president of the American Society for Virology.

Racaniello is the host of various podcasts, including This Week in Virology.

Racaniello was born in Paterson, New Jersey.

He was also the keynote speaker for the American Society for Virology, at its 2018 meeting.

Racaniello has served on the editorial boards of scientific journals, including the Journal of Virology, and is a community editor for the open access journal PLOS Pathogens.