Events
June 14, 2011
Nobel Laureate who discovered HIV to speak
Francoise Barré-Sinoussi, co-winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Francoise Barré-Sinoussi, co-winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her discovery of the virus responsible for AIDS, will speak Thursday, June 16 at 6:30 p.m. in the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Auditorium.
"From the discovery of HIV to the end of AIDS: A discussion of scientific questions past, present and future" is free and open to the public, but an RSVP is requested.
The Georgia Research Alliance will present Barré-Sinoussi with the Georgia Research Alliance Pioneer Award, an honor reserved for individuals whose work has fundamentally advanced our scientific understanding and opened new pathways for improving the well-being of humankind.
Barré-Sinoussi is director of the retroviral infections control unit at the Pasteur Institute. She also is co-chair of the United Nations Panel on AIDS Prevention (UNAIDS), and she soon will become president of the International AIDS Society.
Barré-Sinoussi was invited to Emory by scientists at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, the Emory Center for AIDS Research and the Emory Vaccine Center. In addition to her lecture, she will meet with scientists, postdoctoral students and graduate students from Emory and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
After receiving her PhD in 1974 from the Sciences University of Paris, Barré-Sinoussi joined the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) in 1975.
In December 1982, research began at the Pasteur Institute to isolate the then unknown virus that causes AIDS. The viral oncology unit, headed by Luc Montagnier, was in charge of the project, and most of the work on the new virus was directed by Barré-Sinoussi. Her work has resulted in more than 200 original publications in international journals, more than 250 talks at international conferences and 17 patents.
In 2008, Barré-Sinoussi and Montagnier received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. To date, she is the only woman to receive a Nobel Prize for Medicine in France.
