Bio
Steven Foung, MD’s career focused on the detection and prevention of multiple transfusion-transmitted pathogens that included human T-cell leukemia viruses and hepatitis C virus (HCV) to advance the field of blood safety associated with blood transfusions, nationwide. Dr. Foung received his MD degree from the University of California, San Diego in 1975 and completed Pediatrics residency at UCSF and Stanford. He was a fellow in Pediatric Hematology and in Pathology at Stanford and joined the faculty in the Department of Pathology at Stanford in 1982. His research pioneered the studies of antibody responses elicited during infection by the isolation of antigen-specific human monoclonal antibodies from infected individuals, and the functional and biochemical characterizations of these antibodies. His studies helped define pathways toward detection and the broader understanding of host–virus interactions that are relevant for vaccine development. Over the years, his research laboratory dissected protective antibody responses to HCV. These efforts created high-resolution, functional maps of linear and nonlinear epitopes comprising the major binding sites of both isolate-specific and broadly neutralizing antibodies for rational vaccine design against this virus.
