John Tavis | Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
St Louis University School Of Medicine

John Tavis, Ph.D., is a Professor of Molecular Virology at Saint Louis University and Director of the Saint Louis University Institute for Drug and Biotherapeutic Innovation. He received his doctorate in molecular virology from Penn State University in 1990 and did postdoctoral studies in molecular virology at the University of California – San Francisco. He is the Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council for the annual International Molecular Biology of the Hepatitis B Viruses Meeting, Incoming Chair of the International Coalition to Eliminate HBV (ICE-HBV), and a member of the Scientific and Medical Advisory Board member for the Hepatitis B Foundation and Baruch S. Blumberg Institute. His work on controlling cancer led to receipt of the Mission Hero Award from the American Cancer Society in 2018. He has studied the HBV replication mechanism and the biochemistry of viral reverse transcription since 1992. His current work focuses on the basic biochemistry of the HBV ribonuclease H and developing drugs to suppress HBV replication that target this essential enzyme.