The Senate of the Medical University of Bialystok (UMB) awarded Dr Genoveffa Franchini from the National Cancer Institute in the USA an honorary doctorate. Dr Genoveffa Franchini is a world-renowned authority in the field of virology and a pioneer in the study of oncogenes and human retroviruses.

The aim of her research is to prevent and treat diseases caused by pathogenic human retroviruses. Since 1997, Dr Franchini has been managing the Animal Models and Retroviral Vaccines Section laboratory at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) belonging to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US.

Dr Franchini conducts constant scientific cooperation with many centers in the USA, Europe and South America, including cooperation with the Medical University of Bialystok for over 20 years.