Don Ganem is a virololgist and infectious disease specialist whose research focused on the following areas: (i) Replication and pathogenesis of human hepatitis B virus, HBV; (ii) Replication, transcription and pathogenesis of Kaposi Sarcoma-associated herpesvirus, KSHV; (iii) epidemiology of KSHV; and (iv) use of genomic methods to identify novel human and animal viral pathogens from cliincal specimen. After nearly 30 years at UCSF, he left in 2011 to become VP and Global Head of Infectious Diseases Research at Novartis, where he built and led a large team working to develop novel antibiotics for multiresistant gram-negative rods and novel antivirals for influenza, CMV, polyomaviruses and HBV. He left Novartis in 2018, and in 2020 co-founded Via Nova Therapeutics, which aims to develop antivirals for acute and subacute viral infections for which there are no current treatments.