Laura Riva, PhD

“I’m finally being able to apply what I’ve done for many years and seeing that it can be really useful.”

Laura Riva is a postdoctoral researcher at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in California, where she has studied antiviral drugs that could work against Zika, West Nile, and other viral infections.

She spent an earlier part of her career studying the molecular biology of the hepatitis C virus. When COVID-19 made headlines, Riva pivoted, and virtually led an extensive drug screen, where she and her colleagues identified 21 existing drugs that were able to stop the replication of SARS-CoV-2 virus in monkey cells.

In September 2020, Riva started a new role at the California Institute for Biomedical Research, where she’s now scanning additional drug candidates that could work against Covid-19.