Genoveffa Franchini

Genoveffa Franchini is an Italian-American hematologist and retrovirologist. She is a senior investigator in the vaccine branch and head of the animal models and retroviral vaccines section at the National Cancer Institute. Franchini has pioneered research on oncogenes and human retroviruses. She researches HIV vaccine development and translational methods of disease prevention.

Early life and education As a teenager in Italy, Franchini intended to conduct service work as a missionary nun. Her focus later shifted to biology and medicine as a means to help patients. She completed a doctor of medicine at University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in 1977. She was a postdoctoral fellow at her alma mater in the hematology institute from 1977 to 1979.

Awards and honors Franchini was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 1990. In 2007, she was elected to the Association of American Physicians. She was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree by the Medical University of Bialystok, Poland in 2019.