Dr Santiago Avila-Ríos

Santiago Avila-Ríos is head of the Centre for Research in Infectious Diseases at the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases in Mexico City and a member of Mexico’s National System of Researchers. He received his first degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City; his MSc degree on Molecular Medical Microbiology from Nottingham University, United Kingdom; and his PhD degree on Biomedical Sciences from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Santiago Avila-Ríos conducts research on HIV molecular epidemiology, drug resistance surveillance and HLA-associated evolution in the Mesoamerican Region. He coordinates participation of the Centre for Research in Infectious Diseases at the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases as a WHO regional reference laboratory for the Technical Cooperation Network for HIV Drug Resistance, mainly supporting countries from Latin America.

He has authored or co-authored more than 65 peer-reviewed articles. The Centre for Research in Infectious Diseases at the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases under Santiago Avila-Ríos’ leadership cares for a cohort of 1500 people living with HIV and performs follow-up viral load, CD4 and genotyping testing for one third of the people living with HIV in Mexico. His research team includes scientists developing research lines on HIV immunopathogenesis, reservoir characterization and the role of the microbiome on HIV pathogenesis as well as a team of highly specialized physicians.