July 24, 2006
Luisa L. Villa Appointed Director of the Ludwig Institute’s São Paulo Branch
Acknowledges research achievements for cancer control in the developing world
Dr. Luisa L. Villa
(July 24, New York) — The global Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) has announced that Dr. Luisa L. Villa has been appointed Director of its Branch in São Paulo, Brazil. LICR has nine Branches in Australia, Brazil, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and USA.
Dr. Villa is a world expert in the natural history of HPV infection. She created and leads, with Dr. Eduardo Franco of McGill University (Montreal), the ‘Ludwig/McGill Cohort,’ one of the world’s largest longitudinal study of women with HPV infection. The Cohort has provided data on the natural history of HPV infection and the risk of cervical cancer, that were crucial to the design and development of vaccines against HPV. Dr. Villa was also the lead author of the first study to show efficacy of Merck’s HPV vaccine, Gardasil™, which was approved for use in the USA in June 2006.
In announcing the appointment, Mr. Edward A. McDermott Jr., LICR President of LICR, said that Dr. Villa exemplified the Institute’s mission of using integrated laboratory and clinical research to understand and control cancer. “Luisa is one of the central figures in a remarkable network of laboratory and clinical investigators — in Brazil and internationally — that has laid the groundwork for eventually controlling HPV-related cancers. The Ludwig Institute is very proud to have Luisa as a new Branch Director. She joins a small number of remarkable investigators that have, or have had, that distinction, and we have no doubt that her contributions will continue to make a real difference to the global problem of cancer.”