Cracking HIV’S genetic code

Flossie Wong-staal 1946-2020

Moving to California from Hong Kong at the age of 18, Flossie Wong-staal studied bacteriology at the University of California, graduating in 1968 and gaining a doctoral degree in molecular biology four years later. Taking her acquired knowledge to the National Cancer Institute in Maryland in 1973, Wong-staal became one of the team members to first discover the cause of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). It was disputed by a team in France who had coincidentally discovered the cause at the same time. However, Wong-staal’s rise to academic distinction came when she became the first person to successfully clone HIV. Unlike other viruses, the transmission of HIV cannot be prevented with a one-size-fitsall vaccine, suggesting to Wong-staal that there might be a genetic element to the way it worked. Of course, she was right, allowing her to artificially clone the virus and genetically map it, in turn paving the way for the development of modern-day treatments and the creation of blood tests to detect the virus in patients.