Barré-Sinoussi, Françoise, << bah RAY sahn oo SEE, fran SWAHZ >> (1947-…), a French scientist, shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. Barré-Sinoussi is a virologist, an expert in viruses and viral diseases. She shared the prize with fellow French virologist Luc Montagnier for their discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS. The German virologist Harald zur Hausen also won a share of the prize for discovering that a virus causes cervical cancer (see Zur Hausen, Harald ).
AIDS stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Physicians in Los Angeles and New York City identified the first AIDS cases in the early 1980’s. Scientists immediately began to search for the cause of this disease. In 1983, working at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, Barré-Sinoussi and Montagnier isolated a previously unknown virus in cells from the lymph nodes of an AIDS patient. The lymph nodes are small masses of tissue that filter harmful substances from the body. By the end of 1984, Montagnier, Barré-Sinoussi, and other scientists had identified this virus, now called HIV, as the cause of AIDS. Once they had discovered the virus, the researchers quickly developed tests to detect HIV infection in patients.
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi was born in Paris on July 30, 1947. She studied biochemistry at the University of Paris and virology at the Pasteur Institute, where she received her Ph.D. degree in 1975. She remained at the Pasteur Institute—a world center for the study, prevention, and treatment of disease—as a researcher and professor.
See also AIDS ; Montagnier, Luc .
