Gallo, Robert C. 1937-

AIDS RESEARCHER

The First Human Retro virus.

In May 1984 Dr. Robert C. Gallons research team at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) claimed to have identified the Human T-cell Lymphotropic Virus (HTLV-III) as the cause of AIDS. Earlier, in the fall of 1981, Kaposi's sarcoma, the strange disease striking the homosexual community, began to interest the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), located in Bethesda, Maryland. Gallo, a lively and imaginative young researcher at NCI, previously identified the first human retrovirus in 1978-1979. It was the first time a cancer-causing virus was found in humans. For his pioneering discovery of how these RNA tumor viruses cause cancer, Gallo was awarded the prestigious Albert Lasker Award, often called "America's Nobel Prize," in 1982. Retroviruses were important to the NCI because they can cause severe diseases such as cancer. The rare form of...

[The entire page is 954 words long]

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass