HIV/AIDS research pioneer Flossie Wonstal died at 73

Over the next 17 years, she became the director of the tumor cell biology laboratory and became one of the NIH’s leading female researchers. In 1990, scientists announced her to be the most cited woman in science in the 1980s, with 7,772 citations in its 10-year academic journal.

“She was at the forefront of molecular immunity,” explained the human immunodeficiency virus, “How this virus caused AIDS and what it needed to fight it,” Weat-Staal. In his interview, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Beatrice Hahn, a molecular virologist who worked for him, and is now a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. “This was the male world at the time-this was 40 years ago-and she certainly held herself.”

When Dr. Walstal joined the NIH, Gallo was engaged in groundbreaking research on retroviruses, a group of viruses that infect victims by inserting genetic material into the DNA of the host. A healthy immune system can attack and destroy standard viruses such as influenza by recognizing and attacking them as an invader. Retroviruses, on the other hand, become part of the host’s genome and are much more difficult to kill.

Gallo made a scientific headline with the discovery of HTLV-1, the cause of leukemia, the first human retrovirus.

At the time, there was no indication that such a virus existed in humans. Most hardcore scientists did not believe in human retroviruses and called them “human rumor viruses.” But we went on persistently.”

In the early 1980s, retrovirus research became extremely urgent, with the emergence of AIDS, a disease that will soon become apparent to be caused by the retroviral HIV, and was rapidly epidemic. Gallo and the French virologist Luc Montagnier have been recognized as co-discoverers today and are key figures in a long-standing laboratory debate that has made a significant contribution to the identification of HIV.

Competing in collaboration with scientists in the United States and around the world under Gallo, Dr. Wonster led a team of scientists who brought a series of breakthroughs in the study of HIV in the 1980s. In the history of NIH’s dictation, she recalled it as a “dizzle” era, a period of “intense discovery” that was the “highlight” of her career.

Under the leadership of Dr. Wong Stahl, researchers including Hahn first cloned HIV. “Keeping a pure copy of the virus’s genetic information at hand” was an important first step in understanding molecular biology—the genetics of the virus (if so).

Dr. Wong-Staal described HIV as a disease that “breaks many rules.” She and her colleagues are a variation of a group of scientists who perform nucleotide sequencing of HIV to map its entire genetic makeup or genome and unravel much of it. Such studies have provided the scientific basis for so-called drug cocktails that have led to second generation HIV testing and have significantly improved the medical outlook for millions of HIV/AIDS patients worldwide.

Echin Wong was born on August 27, 1946 in Guangzhou, China. Her father was an importer and exporter, and her mother was a housewife. After the Chinese Communist Revolution, the family moved to Hong Kong, where Dr. Wonstahl attended a girls’ school run by English-speaking nuns.

She believes that she encouraged her parents to study her, even though her generation of Chinese women had little opportunity to pursue higher education. She said she was initially interested in literature, but because science was considered a more prestigious discipline, she decided to study science.

Dr. Wonster changed the name based on a nun’s suggestion at school. “I didn’t want to be another Mary or Theresa, so I asked my dad to pick something weird,” she told Psychology Today, published in 2010. I chose Flossie.”

He came to the United States to attend the University of California, Los Angeles and received a B.A. in Bacteriology in 1968 and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology in 1972. After working as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Diego, he enrolled at Garoz University. In the laboratory, in addition to research on HIV / AIDS, I also contributed to research on cancer genes that cause cancer.

In 1990, Dr. Wong-Stahl left NIH, returned to UC-San Diego, and led the AIDS Research Center to investigate approaches to gene therapy as a treatment for HIV / AIDS. She later became the founder, chief scientific officer, and vice president of pharmaceutical company Immusol, now known as iTherX, to pursue the treatment of hepatitis C. She retired in 2017.

Her marriage to Stephen Stahl was divorced. Survivors include 18-year-old husband, Jeffrey McKelvey of San Diego. Stephanie Stahl from Brooklyn, the first-married daughter. Girl from a relationship with Caroline Vega, Gallo of San Diego. Sisters; two brothers; and four grandchildren.

Dr. Wonstahl has received numerous honors, including the National Academy of Medicine and the National Women’s Hall of Fame.