Helena Fabryova, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Helena Fabryova, Ph.D., completed her MSc in Molecular Biology in 2013 at the Comenius University in Bratislava (Slovakia) and her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology in 2017 in the Genetics and Virology program at the Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic). She studied various topics, including host-virus interactions of endogenous retroviruses and GC-rich chicken genes at the Institute of Molecular Genetics at the Czech Academy of Sciences. She was on the team identifying the oldest endogenous Lentivirus known to date and the first endogenous Deltaretrovirus. The group also performed functional studies on selected genes previously deemed missing in birds due to the highly GC-rich nature of the bird genomes.

She joined the NIH in August 2017 as a visiting fellow and has worked on various projects related to HIV-1 and HIV-2 accessory proteins. Her work focused on studying Vpr and Vpx and their interaction partners. Aside from her benchwork, Dr. Fabryova taught virology and biology courses with FAES and is an adjunct professor of virology and immunobiotechnology at Georgetown University. Dr. Fabryova has always appreciated the support provided during her research career and advocated for trainees. She enjoyed teaching various scientific topics and mentoring trainees in the laboratory. She decided to move into a more administrative role. Dr. Fabryova facilitates a broad range of programming for NIAMS IRP fellows and offers laboratory support services for investigators as a scientific program manager in the NIAMS OSO/Career Development and Outreach Branch (CDOB).