Pierre Charneau /ʃɑːrˈnoʊ/ is a French virologist, inventor, and head of the Molecular Virology and Vaccinology Unit (VMV) at the Pasteur Institute and an acknowledged specialist in HIV, lentiviral gene transfer vectors, and their medical applications.
His discovery of the central DNA-flap structure[1] in the HIV genome, and its role in viral entry into the nucleus of the infected cell, grounded the optimization of lentiviral vectors and allowed for more than 20 years of development in gene therapy and vaccines based on this gene delivery technology.
Charneau studied at the Pierre and Marie Curie University (UPMC) in Paris from which he holds a research doctorate in Molecular and Cellular Biology (1995).
Since 2000, Charneau has led his own research group at the Pasteur Institute focusing on molecular virology and vectorology.
[7] His research has specialized in lentiviral vectors medicinal applications and his publications and patents[8] have led to extensive developments in gene therapy, as well as prophylactic and therapeutic vaccinations in infectious diseases and oncology.