Kenneth Roux is an American academic biologist whose research addresses structural analysis of the AIDS viruses HIV-1 and SIV, and the antibodies that neutralize them, as well as food-allergen characterization and immunoassay development.
He is the Kurt G. Hofer Professor of Biological Science at Florida State University (FSU), where he is affiliated with the Institute of Molecular Biophysics.
[2] Roux was a member of the research team (along with his research associate Ping Zhu) that used negative stain electron microscopy and cryo-electron microscopy coupled with tomography to produce the first detailed 3-D images of the surface of the AIDS viruses, revealing spike proteins.
They show that the three gp120 proteins in each spike consist of a lobed head and a three-legged stalk - and use comparisons with atomic structures to gain insight into the mechanism of fusion.
[3] The images produced in his research of HIV structure and genome provide important insights for the development of vaccines that will thwart infection by targeting and crippling the sticky HIV-1 spike proteins.