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Photo: submitted
Eric O. Freed, PhD, director of the HIV Dynamics and Replication Program in the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute, will deliver the keynote address at the 2026 Fredric S. Fay Memorial Symposium at UMass Chan Medical School on Tuesday, Nov. 3.
The symposium, hosted by the Department of Microbiology, will feature Dr. Freed’s lecture, “HIV assembly, maturation and drug resistance,” as well as presentations from UMass Chan faculty and trainees. The theme of the symposium is, “Living with microbial friends and foes in health and disease.”
Freed, a leading virologist and HIV researcher, is internationally recognized for defining the molecular mechanisms that govern HIV replication, particularly the late stages of the viral life cycle. His work has illuminated HIV assembly, envelope glycoprotein incorporation and function, budding and maturation, revealing how viral proteins engage cellular factors and pathways. His laboratory played a central role in developing HIV maturation inhibitors, a class of antiretrovirals that targets a late stage of replication. More recently, his group identified roles for neutral sphingomyelinase 2 (nSMase2) and inositol hexakisphosphate (IP6) in lentiviral maturation and infectivity.
Freed also studies how HIV evades antiretroviral therapy, including escape from integrase strand transfer inhibitors. His work has uncovered previously unrecognized resistance mechanisms involving mutations in the viral envelope and nucleocapsid proteins. His contributions span basic virology, virus–host interactions and antiviral drug discovery. He is co-director of the Virology Program at the University of Maryland, College Park, and founding editor-in-chief of the journal Viruses.
The annual Fredric Fay Memorial Lecture was established in 1999 in remembrance of the late UMass Chan professor of physiology and his scientific contributions, particularly to the field of biomedical live imaging. The purpose of the lecture is to host a world-renowned scientist in physiological research who is also a great communicator and role model for the next generation of scientists.
The symposium is being held from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Albert Sherman Center auditorium and virtually on Zoom. Freed’s lecture will take place at 4 p.m. A reception and poster session will follow the event in the Cube on the third floor of the Sherman Center.
