The Department of Microbiology, Molecular Genetics & Immunology and the Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology are sponsoring a symposium to honor the contributions of Opendra “Bill” Narayan, DVM, PhD (1936-2007). We hope you will join us as we celebrate his contributions and achievements.

D.V.M., University of Toronto, 1963
Ph.D., University of Guelph, 1970

Dr. Narayan began his professional career as a practicing large animal veterinarian in the Canadian Midwest from 1963-1965.  He developed an interest in virus infections in animals and at the end of 1965 began graduate studies at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, studying avian influenza virus infections in chickens and turkeys.  He obtained his Ph.D. in 1970 and went to Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine to pursue further studies on virus infections of the brain under the mentorship of Dr. Richard T. Johnson.  There, he developed further interests in viral infections in the brain as models of chronic CNS diseases in humans.  The major focus of his research from 1972 to 1980 was on CNS disease in sheep infected with a “slow” virus termed Visna-Maedi virus.  This virus turned out to be a prototype of HIV and many of the concepts developed in studying this disease in sheep became applicable to HIV disease in humans.  Following discovery of HIV infections in humans, he participated in developing the monkey model of HIV infection and used this as a model system to study AIDS as well as HIV dementia.  While still at Johns Hopkins, he developed a multi-disciplinary research program aimed at studying the disease in monkeys and in development of a vaccine against the virus. 

Dr. Narayan was recruited to the University of Kansas School of Medicine in 1993 as a Marion Merrell Dow Distinguished Professor where he extended his program studying the monkey model of HIV disease and vaccine development.  He became Chairman of the Department of Microbiology, Molecular Genetics and Immunology in the School of Medicine in 1999 and Director of a COBRE grant from the National Center for Research Resources in 2001.  He held both of these positions until his death.  His research was continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health for 35 years.  During that period, he published numerous scientific papers and used his research program as a training ground for the development of junior faculty.    

Symposium Organizing Committee:

• Shilpa J. Buch, PhD
• Paul D. Cheney, PhD
• Joe Lutkenhaus, PhD
• Christophe Nicot, PhD
• Juergen Richt, DVM, PhD

Please contact Elizabeth Jenkins with any questions: