The viral pandemic of the 1980s – HIV/AIDS, and how Francoise Barre-Sinoussi was at the heart of its discovery. #12WomenInSTEM.

By Claire Donald

There has been rather a lot in news this year about COVID19, a viral disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. Back in the 1980s, the world was experiencing the start of a different viral pandemic. An increasing number of young homosexual men and drug users were suffering from acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). This is a condition where the immune system has become severely damaged and causes patients to succumb to opportunistic infections and cancers, such as Kaposi’s Sarcoma. The causative agent was found to be HIV (Human immunodeficiency virus) and in 2008 The Nobel Foundation awarded The Prize in Physiology or Medicine to the team involved in the ground-breaking discovery in 1983, Françoise Barré- Sinoussi and her mentor, Luc Montaigner. 

Professor Françoise Barré- Sinoussi was born in Paris, France on the 30^th July 1947. She came from a humble background and had an interest in science from a young age. She began her career by volunteering part-time at the Institut Pasteur, eventually gaining her PhD there in 1975. Her work focuses on retroviruses– RNA viruses which are able to incorporate their genome into the host’s DNA. Barré- Sinoussi and Montaigner discovered a retrovirus in the lymph glands of patients. They found that the virus depleted lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) which are important for a healthy immune response. By destroying the body’s lymphocytes, the virus gradually weakens the immune response. This finding is now used as the basis of the major prognostic tool for HIV infections.   

Prof. Barré- Sinoussi ran her own laboratory at the Institut Pasteur from 1988 until she retired in 2017. She initiated several research programs investigating the interaction of HIV with it’s host, as well as vaccine research. Her recent work has been about human immune response and its ability to control the infection, as well as understanding mother-to-child virus transmission. She is also interested in investigating the factors that allow a small number of HIV-positive patients (termed elite suppressors) to suppress the virus without the need for antiviral treatments. 

Working with various international collaborations, such as the Institute Pasteur International Network and the French Agency for Research on AIDS (ANRS) research programs in Cambodia and Vietnam, Prof. Barré- Sinoussi has been credited with promoting collegiality between research, training and actions in countries with limited resources. She cites her experiences of working with the World Health Organisation as providing eye-opening experiences which further motivated her to collaborate with countries across Asia and Africa. This has included collaborations between young-scientists from resource-limited countries and researchers in Paris.    

Over the years, Prof. Barré- Sinoussi has published more than 300 scientific works and won a great number of accolades. These include The International AIDS Society and The Académie des Sciences Prizes. She was appointed head of the Biology of Retroviruses unit in 1992 and became an elected member of the French Academy of Science in 2009. In addition, she was the President of the International AIDS Society 2012-2014 and the Grand Officer de la Légion d’Honneur in 2013.    

I had the great pleasure of listening to her speak when she visited Glasgow in 2013 to give her Sir Michael Stoker Award lecture. You can check out the recording here. Also, have a listen to her advice to young women starting their career in science here.