Barré-Sinoussi, Françoise

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi is a French virologist, head of the Retroviral Infection Control Unit at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, and a Nobel laureate. She, along with her colleague Luc Montagnier and the German researcher Harald zur Hausen, received the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their part in the identification of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Some experts believe that Barré-Sinoussi's role in the discovery of HIV, which is responsible for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), has been obscured by the controversy surrounding the competing claims of the better-known Montagnier and American virologist Robert C. Gallo. However, Barré-Sinoussi was the first scientist in the world to isolate the HIV virus, and her work continues to focus on the virology of HIV.

Born on July 30, 1947, ...