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Lieutenant Colonel Robert Paris, Chief of the Department of Retrovirology, Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS)
Lieutenant Colonel Robert Paris
Chief of the Department of Retrovirology
Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS)
According to the United Nations, “Every day, over 6,800 persons become infected with HIV and over 5,700 persons die from AIDS, mostly because of inadequate access to HIV prevention and treatment services. The HIV pandemic remains the most serious of infectious disease challenges to public health.” In Thailand the HIV/AIDS epidemic became an issue of national concern in the late 1980’s. Since then, coordinated prevention efforts among the Royal Thai Government, national and international civil society and the private sector have been extremely successful at reducing new cases of HIV. Even so, an estimated 600,000 Thai people are living with HIV/AIDS and over 10,000 get infected every year.
All over the world, researchers like Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Robert Paris, are dedicating their lives to the search for a vaccine against HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), the virus that causes AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). HIV is a rapidly-mutating and multi-typed virus. Its ability to mutate and adapt makes for a tough adversary against which scientists like LTC Paris continue to fight.
Vaccine development is a long process involving numerous steps. After identifying the pathogen that causes a disease, scientists design a set of vaccines against it and test them in the laboratory. If one of the new products proves effective, the vaccine is then tested in animal trials to ensure it generates an immune response. Later, three phases of clinical trials on non-infected humans begin. Phase I and II trials involve dozens to hundreds of volunteer participants and seek to determine whether the new vaccine is safe and generates an immune response in humans. Phase III or “efficacy” trials typically enroll thousands of participants and seek to prove that the vaccine successfully prevents new infections.
At the Department of Retrovirology of the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS) LTC Paris’ team tests HIV vaccines in all phases of development. Their trials include small studies of safety and immune responses as well as a large phase III study to test vaccine effectiveness, currently underway in Rayong and Chon Buri provinces east of Bangkok, which will be completed later this year. This trial is being conducted in collaboration with the Royal Thai government’s Ministry of Public Health, Mahidol University, the Royal Thai Army, and private industry partners. “We have over 70 staff members that include a number of Thai and foreign scientists, dedicated to HIV vaccine development. Our work is focused on the development of HIV vaccines to protect service members from getting HIV, which would also have a global public health impact,” LTC Paris says about his job as the Chief of the Department of Retrovirology.
In addition to conducting vaccine trials, the AFRIMS team is also studying the way the human body responds to HIV, particularly during the first few weeks after infection, which “may provide key insights into how an effective vaccine might work.”
Explaining how he decided to work for AFRIMS LTC Paris says: “I’ve always wanted to work overseas. When I was studying biology in college, I became interested in tropical medicine and noticed that many of the pictures in my textbooks came from the Army; to include US military overseas labs like AFRIMS and the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, DC.” He then adds: “I joined the Army for a number of reasons, but at the time, it was one of the few organizations doing research on tropical diseases where these diseases occurred—and with a long-term presence in these countries, which is what I wanted to do.”
LTC Paris completed his undergraduate studies at the University of California at Irvine and went on to medical school Loyola University- Chicago. He then completed his medical training at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii and at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. He also received a Master’s degree in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.
When asked what he believes is the most rewarding part of his job LTC Paris thinks it is not reaching medical breakthroughs but that it is “the relationships we develop with our local staff and partners, that make these breakthroughs possible that are extremely rewarding. We wouldn’t be successful without the dedication and longevity of our staff.” LTC Paris also finds it “extremely satisfying to know that when we (the US staff) leave our assignments in Thailand, there is a cadre of people who can carry on the work, and continue to make significant research contributions that have a meaningful impact on public health.”
The impact of LTC Paris’ work goes beyond his team’s scientific developments. By encouraging local students and even his own children to visit the Department of Retrovirology’s laboratories and facilities, and by sharing with family and friends the importance about the work he does, LTC Paris is planting the seeds for future generations of public health researchers.