Science in the Triangle

After a presentation in front of a crowd of about 140, Dr. Robert Gallo sat in an empty auditorium at RTI International and compared the human immunodeficiency virus to Mount Everest.

Dr. Robert Gallo, courtesy J. W. Crawford/RTI International

Gallo, director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, has studied HIV for nearly 30 years.

In 1983, he was locked in a controversial race with French virologist Luc Montagnier to identify HIV as the cause of AIDS. The research results earned Gallo a 1986 Lasker award, also known as America’s Nobel. Montagnier received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2008.

The HIV discoveries by Gallo and Montagnier led to an antibody test that helped rid blood banks of the retrovirus and aided in the development of AZT, the first AIDS medicine, at Burroughs Wellcome in Research Triangle Park.

During a presentation Gallo gave Thursday at RTI - during his latest visit to RTP, long a hot spot for HIV/AIDS research - he outlined the clues he followed on the path to identify HIV and the work he’s doing now to develop a vaccine. Read more…