Virologist Françoise Barré-Sinoussi discovered the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), known as the cause of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). The discovery, made in 1983 with Luc Montagnier, won her the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Working for the Pasteur Institute in Paris since 1975, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi applied her deep knowledge on retroviruses to identify and isolate HIV. She and Montagnier had dissected the lymph node of an infected patient to culture virus-ridden cells. By doing so, they were able to detect retrovirus replication, a telltale sign of AIDS.

Subsequently, Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and her partner were able to explain how HIV defeats the immune system. They not only determined HIV as the cause of AIDS, but also correctly identified it as a lentivirus, easily transmitted through sexual intercourse, blood transfusion, and childbirth.

Francoise Barré-Sinoussi’s discovery paved the way for diagnostic methods crucial to managing the disease as well as modern antiviral medicines. Other scientists have built on her pioneering work and cloned the HIV-1 genome, unearthing even more staggering insights into the disease. Now they have reason to believe HIV probably jumped from chimps to humans in Africa in the Twentieth Century.

Francoise Barré-Sinoussi still works for the Pasteur Institute, where she has been Director of the Regulation of Retroviral Infections Unit, formerly Retrovirus Biology Unit, since 1996. Outside it, she devotes herself to AIDS-oriented organizations, including France’s National Agency for AIDS Research. WHO and UN have also engaged her as consultant.

Through the Pasteur Institute’s international arms, Barré-Sinoussi has actively coordinated with nations at the confluence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. She presides over a committee of the National Agency for AIDS and Viral Hepatitis Research (ANRS), which has programs throughout Southeast Asia.

As discoverer of the AIDS virus, Barré-Sinoussi is the recipient of numerable international honors. On top of the Nobel Prize, she has garnered the International AIDS Society Prize, the Sovac Prize, the King Faisal International Prize, the Körber Foundation Prize for the Promotion of European Science, and the French Academy of Science Prize.

Francoise Barré-Sinoussi, who belongs to the Order of the Légion d’Honneur, has penned more than 220 pieces for science journals worldwide. She also owns 17 patents.

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi was born on July 30, 1947 in Paris. She acquired her virology Ph.D. from the Pasteur Institute in Garches, France in 1975.