Early in his graduate studies, Paoletti co-authored a paper that described, for the first time, RNA polymerase activity in vaccinia virus[1] - a key finding noted by Dr. David Baltimore in his Nobel Lecture delivered in 1975.
Four seminal papers, all published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences with Dennis Panicali and others provided the technology and proof of principle to construct live vaccines using genetically engineered poxviruses.
[8] Over the years, highly attenuated poxvirus vectors (NYVAC, ALVAC and TROVAC) that induced cell-mediated and humoral responses were developed.
[12] A prime-dose regimen with canarypox ALVAC-HIV (vCP1521) vaccine and HIV-1 gp120 AIDSVAX B/E was found to be safe, well tolerated and 31.2% effective for the prevention of HIV acquisition in HIV-uninfected adults in Thailand.
[12] This highly-adaptable viral vectored vaccine platform has been adopted by researchers to prevent infection against many pathogens, including the pandemic-causing SARS-CoV-2[14] Paoletti received numerous awards including: New York State Regents Scholarship, the National Institutes of Health Predoctoral Traineeship, the New York State Department of Health Predoctoral Fellowship, National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellowship, Il Leone Di San Marco Award for Science (1984) and Rhone- Poulenc Prix Innovation (1991).