Saveez Saffarian

Saveez Saffarian is an Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Adjunct Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Utah. His lab pioneers advanced microscopy techniques like iPALM to study molecular mechanisms in retroviruses (e.g., HIV) and negative-strand RNA viruses (e.g., VSV), focusing on budding, maturation, and RNA polymerase dynamics.

• Education: B.S. from Sharif University of Technology, Iran; Ph.D. from Washington University, St Louis.

Research interests include:

• Molecular virology of HIV and VSV
• ESCRT machinery in viral budding
• Super-resolution imaging (iPALM, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy)
• RNA-dependent RNA polymerase dynamics

Recent publications emphasize:

• HIV lattice remodeling and protease activation
• High-resolution imaging of viral assembly
• Thermal stability of SARS-CoV-2 particles
• Computational models for transcription mechanisms

His work bridges biophysics and virology, with collaborations across disciplines.