BACK TO ALL

Don Ganem, M.D.

Senior Advisor, CZ Biohub

Don Ganem was most recently vice president and Global Head of Infectious Diseases for the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research in Emeryville, California. His research group at Novartis focused on understanding and developing better treatments for viral, bacterial, and fungal infections in normal and immunocompromised individuals. While an undergraduate student at Harvard, Ganem did research in bacterial genetics with James Watson. Although he enjoyed the challenges of lab work, Ganem decided to pursue a medical degree, and he received his M.D. and completed his training at Harvard. He then moved to the University of California, San Francisco, where he studied the Hepatitis B virus (HBV) as a postdoctoral fellow with Harold Varmus. Ganem joined the faculty of UCSF in 1982 and became an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 1991. He continued to study HBV for 15 years before focusing his research on Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated virus (KSHV). Results from his lab were pivotal in identifying KSHV as the causative agent of Kaposi’s sarcoma. Ganem is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences.

Photo of Don Ganem, M.D.