Janis Giorgi; Immunologist, HIV Vaccine Pioneer

Janis V. Giorgi, 53, UCLA immunologist who was a pioneer in the search for an HIV vaccine. Giorgi, who held grants from the American Foundation for AIDS Research and the National Institutes of Health, was a member of the NIH’s National Advisory Allergy and Infectious Diseases Council. While most AIDS researchers focused on the virus itself, Giorgi concentrated on specific cells in the immune system that helped protect some HIV-exposed people against infection and prevented some HIV-infected people from developing AIDS. Her greatest discovery was finding that a patient with the highest level of CD38, a protein expressed by the body’s infection-fighting T-cells, had the worst clinical prognosis. She also designed a quick, inexpensive test to determine whether HIV would progress to AIDS. In 1984, the field of HIV immunology was in its infancy when the UCLA School of Medicine recruited Giorgi to launch its cytometry laboratory, which revolutionized research in AIDS, cancer and other immune diseases. Born in Jacksonville Beach, Fla., Giorgi earned degrees at the University of Florida and the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. She served twice on the planning group for the annual International Conference on AIDS. Shortly before her death, Giorgi had finalized plans for UCLA’s first HIV vaccine trial. On May 30 in Woodland Hills of uterine cancer.